And Your Little Dog Too
by BuJyo
Summary: Our dynamic duo M/M road trip to Kansas. Why Kansas? who knows. There's a lot of verbal sparring, nasty fights, gun fights...It's M for a reason! ZEST! Complete now. Enjoy!
1. Chapter 1

***** On the road again and neither is really excited to be going. Spoilers for season 1 and 2 interspersed. This seems to occur outside of the TV show. After season one and the season 2 we saw would be in a parallel universe *****

Mary peeled her eyes open as the insistent ringing of her phone penetrated her dreams and awareness slowly dawned. It was the only thing dawning, though, because it was still dark outside. She slapped her hand over to the nightstand and felt around until she grabbed the offending instrument and pulled her face out of the pillow to answer sharply, "You better be dying, numbnuts, or I'm going to kill you myself." She knew it was Marshall because no one else would dare call her at this time of night…or morning.

"Pack your bags, cowgirl, adventure awaits us in Kansas." Her partner's voice was inappropriately perky for the hour.

"Can't it await until daytime?" she mumbled as she flopped over onto her back and tried to focus on the clock…4:10am… "_Are you kidding??_" she thought in amazement.

"Just pee and put on a bra. I'll be there in twenty and you can sleep in the truck." He hung up and she swore at the phone.

Mary drug herself out of bed and not only managed to follow Marshall's suggestion, but added to her already packed travel bags, put on some clothes and brushed her hair and teeth. Leaving quickly and efficiently was rote by now in this job. She grabbed her two Glocks and extra clips, badge and keys and met him as he came up the walk to take her bag.

Marshall had to chuckle at her as she stumbled to the truck. Mary did not wake up easily or well when she wasn't on watch, and it took her three tries to successfully operate the handle on the door and pile herself into the passenger seat. "What…you aren't driving?" He teased as he threw her bag in the back, "I was going to get a few more hours of shut eye."

She flipped him off, leaned the seat back and turned on her side to get comfortable.

"Seat belt" he reminded as he settled into the driver's side, watched her fumble to pull the belt down and sighed. Reaching over, he buckled her in as he mumbled, "Truly pathetic, Shannon."

"Don't talk to me until it's time for breakfast, Marshall." she grunted, then added for good measure, "I hate Kansas, by the way, so I'm doubly pissed."

He glanced sideways at her, reflexively admiring the curve of her hip and butt since she was turned away from him, then offering, "I'll buy you pancakes. You'll get over it."

"Possibly…now stop talking."

"Your wish is my command."

"Still talking"

"Yes ma'am"

"Marshaaaallll…" came her exasperated warning hiss. He smiled to himself and decided to leave her alone. It was a long, two day drive and he wanted to arrive in one, non emasculated piece. Marshall was comfortable amusing himself with his own thoughts and drove until the morning was fully established in complete contentment.

Three and half hours and two cups of coffee later, Mary felt human enough to wonder why they were going to Kansas. As the pancakes arrived and Marshall put down the newspaper, she asked him what the plan was.

He looked up and grinned, "Oh…I can talk now?" She rolled her eyes and he chuckled while answering, "Manny Sterling."

Mary's brow furrowed as she remembered Marshall's witness. Manny Sterling was a low level mule snagged during a bust in Oklahoma. He rolled pretty easily and was going to give the DEA the goods on a key player in the drug world of America's Heartland. His info had been good so far, and the feds planned to put him on the stand within the next few months. Marshall had inherited him from Portland WITSEC after Manny had unwittingly revealed his location to a former girlfriend and now the man was locked down tight under her partner's keen eye.

"Don't tell me he was trying to get another date and now we have to cover his shit?" Mary had no tolerance for witnesses who were dumb enough to not understand that "don't tell anyone" still applied when you were naked.

Marshall's attention was drawn to an article in the paper and he was slow to respond, "Nah…one of his former runners and family was offed execution style at their ranch outside of Quinter. They suspect the cartel, and with the trial only months away and Manny's previous breach, want us to do an on site threat assessment and brain wipe." The latter term was launched into use after the Men in Black movie and referred to the procedure of cleaning up the local reports to keep any witness info away from prying eyes.

She stopped chewing to narrow her eyes at him, "And you needed me on this little joy ride because…." It wasn't necessary for him to bring her along and she suspected there was an ulterior motive involved.

"What…I get lonely." He tossed out and then asked, "Did you know that in Honduras, the Lluvia de Peces (Rain of Fishes) is a unique phenomenon that has been occurring for more than a century on a yearly basis? Witnesses say a dark cloud covers the area, there's thunder and lighting and then rain for hours. Once the rain has stopped, hundreds of living fish are found on the ground. They think it's a meteorological phenomena in which mini vortices draw up water from local ponds and then the fish get caught in the updrafts, transported miles away within the storm and are dropped with the rain. I hear that happens here during tornado season sometimes…even frogs and small rodents occasionally rain down."

"Gives new meaning to the phrase, 'flying rat's ass' now, doesn't it?" She was trying really hard to tune him out as she suspected he was trying to distract her and focused back on his intent for dragging her along on this trip to the nation's Hell Hole. "So why'd you bring me? You don't get lonely. All you need is a book and a picture of Penelope Cruz and you're set for a week." she cocked her head as she sipped her coffee and stared at him.

Marshall knew she'd just keep asking until he told her and sighed, "Stan made me take you." He could've gone on this trip all by himself and had a few days of R&R, but his boss made it very clear that his partner was to join him. "And it's Salma Hayak, not Penelope Cruz…just for the record."

Mary curled her lip, "Whatever…skinny with fake boobs…they're all the same. What I want to know is why Stan made you take me. What's his problem?" She was trying to figure out why she was being banished from the office and drawing a blank. Though it was true she had no outstanding work right now, Stan didn't usually force them on each other…they did that to themselves.

"The problem, Mare, is that you've been particularly testy the last couple of weeks and your little blow up with Eleanor four days ago still has her plotting your demise in very creative ways. You needed to get away and she needed you to go." He waited for her to protest in her typical indignant manner and glanced down at the paper again for an adequate distraction to her sputtering.

"What? What are you talking about? I thought she was just going into menopause or something." Mary looked completely confused and Marshall looked at her closely.

"You don't remember that little grudge match that ended with your especially obscene suggestion?" Even he had been taken aback by Mary's vehemence at the time.

She pursed her lips and gazed upwards, deep in thought and he worried a bit now. "Mary, don't you remember? It was Tuesday morning." He saw realization dawn and ratcheted his concern down a notch.

"Oh. I really said that, huh? God, no wonder she's been giving me the cold shoulder." Mary looked at Marshall to explain, "I've had an ear infection for the last week and a half with the usual fun side effects of migraines and vertigo. I barely slept the night before that and I was in a lot of pain that morning. The whole day is a blur. Maybe I should call her?"

"No, definitely not. She'll be fine and you can explain when we get back. Why didn't you tell me you were sick?" It bothered him that she had been in pain and hadn't told him.

"Why…you have a cure for ear infections? You would've just hounded me to go to the doctor and you know I wasn't going to give in until I was falling down in the shower. I got some antibiotics later that day and it's much better now. Just a little stuffy still." She rubbed her left ear with her finger as she remembered she forgot the little bottle of meds at home. "_Jesus…I'm an idiot_." she chastised herself.

Her partner rolled his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose while sighing. "You see how you are?"

"What?" she gave him her trademark challenge.

He grabbed the bill and went to pay at the register while she grabbed the paper to read later in the truck. Kansas was still a long way off.

*****************

"She's not, you know." Marshall piped up drowsily from the passenger seat. They had switched drivers after breakfast since he had been awake since three a.m. and Mary had been driving for about two hours now.

"Who's not what?" Mary shot him a look. She thought he had fallen asleep and his comment startled her.

"Salma Hayak. She's not skinny, and I'm pretty sure her boobs are real." Marshall had his eyes closed as he talked.

"Oh come on…they're all swizzle sticks with heads and you could use their boobs for flotation devices in an emergency." Mary rolled her eyes.

Marshall shook his head slowly, "Nope, she's curvy in all the right spots. Great breasts too. Built a lot like you, but she's shorter." Marshall was dozing slightly as he talked, which is why the words actually got through the filter.

Mary glanced over at him, surprised, and saw he had his eyes closed. "Are you asleep, moron? Because I think you just complimented my breasts." She actually felt a little pleased. When you're a woman in a man's job, the men around you tend to forget your gender and you wonder if they even know you're a girl after a while.

Marshall was awake now, but afraid to open his eyes. If she thought he was fully aware he'd be riding on the outside of the truck for the rest of the trip. He decided to milk this for a little while to get a rise out of her and sleepily said, "You do have nice breasts." He tensed for an expected blow.

If Marshall knew how flustered he had just made his partner he would do a little victory dance. Mary had had many men compliment her body…especially her breasts, but they never made her blush like Marshall's comment just did. "_What the hell?_" she thought, confused. "_Why does that make me want to giggle like a school girl?_" Immediately on the defensive when on unstable emotional footing, she snapped, "You've never seen my girls, nitwit."

"Have too."

"What!?" she almost veered out of her lane as she whipped her head around to look at his deceptively relaxed form. "When? Where?"

He opened one eye to peer at her, "Can I refuse to answer that on the grounds it may cripple me?"

"Oh, I'd answer if I were you. Otherwise you'll be getting your own damn hotel room because I'll think you're sneaking peeks while I'm in the shower."

"When we crawled out of that burning crack house in Phoenix two years ago."

She flashed back to that disaster of an operation and remembered coming to on the ground outside with a makeshift bandage wrapped around her ribcage and loosely wearing Marshall's shirt."Oh yeah…wait a minute, you looked? We were mostly dead and almost torched and you looked at my boobs?" She glanced at him incredulously.

He looked slightly abashed and shrugged, "I'm a guy. We look." He had given up the pretense of sleeping and levered himself up in the seat to stretch. "They were right there…hard to miss. It's not I like I studied them…just noticed." He looked over at her and laughed. "You're blushing!"

"I am not! The air conditioning in here sucks." She was completely unsettled by the fact that Marshall had seen her breasts and she could not figure out why. "Read the paper or something, Pervis." She scowled at the windshield and gripped the steering wheel with both hands in aggravation.

"Pedal off the metal, Speedy Gonzales," warned her partner as he saw her speed hit 80mph, "Stan will have our heads if we get a ticket…or you abuse a state trooper again." She grudgingly slowed to 70. Marshall was still reeling from the fact that Mary Shannon could blush and added the marvelous thought that he was the one who made her do it. He was strangely pleased for the next two hundred miles.

***** And they're off! They will definitely get on each other's nerves for this trip, so be prepared. Let me know if you like it so far!! PLEASE...pretty PLEASE :) *****


	2. Chapter 2

***** Only the second day of the trip and they're already starting to get on each other's nerves. Some spoilers from season 1, and you're never safe from Mary's potty mouth!! *****

They were on the road again the next morning by 7 am, switched drivers around 11 am and pulled into Quinter, KS by 2:30 pm. Mary was hot and irritable because her side of the truck was in the sun for the last one hundred miles. As soon as Marshall switched off the ignition, she levered herself out of the vehicle and swore.

"Jesus…it must be a hundred degrees! Every time I've been here it's either disgustingly hot or bitterly cold, and it smells like cow shit year round. God, I hate this fucking state." She saw Marshall gathering the bags out of the back and snapped, "Hurry up, I gotta pee."

He scowled at the bags and dryly replied, "I'm not a damn pack mule, Mare, come here and help." Marshall had been ready to leave her on the prairie about three hours ago, but figured she'd just use her cell phone to call him and bitch and it wasn't worth letting any of the air conditioning out to open the door and jettison her. Stan was going to owe him for this trip…big.

Mary snatched the cooler and a smaller bag from him and stomped towards the lobby with Marshall far behind her glaring daggers into her ass.

He entered the lobby and she was ringing the little bell on the front desk with vigor. Reaching across her, he snatched it out from under her hand and growled, "Stop it! I'm sure they heard it the first twenty times."

"I don't see anyone jumping up to say hello, idiot. If they had heard it they'd be here." She levered herself up onto the desk with her arms and peered around the back calling, "Hello!? Paying customers!"

Marshall grabbed her belt and pulled her down with a scolding, "You're being childish, Mary. Extend a little courtesy and have some patience for once."

"Dammit, Marshal, my eyeballs are floating and you're worried about whether I'll insult some pimply faced teenager by insisting they do their shitty job? Grow a pair." She tried to reach the bell again.

His jaw clenched and he grabbed her shoulders to whirl her around to face the hallway directly behind them. "Does that sign look familiar? That would be a bathroom. Go use it before I get a room for one." She got shoved in the right direction.

Luckily the clerk appeared and Marshall completed the transaction before Mary could return. It would've been better to have two adjoining rooms, but the USMS wouldn't spring for that unless a witness was involved and he didn't feel like shelling out an extra $60 of his own money. He was stuck with her…he had a headache.

The room was too warm and Mary cranked down the air first thing. They automatically threw their bags onto the correct beds, Marshall closest to the door because they had had that argument too many times early in the partnership and Mary knew she'd always lose.

"I'm going to shower and then I'm leaving the bathroom to you while I run out for gas and some food. We're due at the Sheriff's office around 4 so make it snappy." He pulled off his boots and socks, grabbed his toiletries and clean clothes and disappeared into the bathroom without giving her a chance to reply.

She huffed at him and said to herself in a testy tone, "Well o.k. then, Mister Mann…sit Mary, stay Mary…good dog." She stripped down to her jeans and tank top and lay spread eagled on the bed trying to cool off, watching the ceiling fan go round and round. She must've dozed off because he woke her by snapping the wet towel at her thigh. It was a nice shot and she swore and rubbed at the stinging welt while insulting his parentage. He fended off her half hearted attempt to maul him with a longer reach and accuracy using wet cotton and she quickly gave up and claimed the bathroom as her new refuge.

***************

"I don't know why I showered, I'm now just as sweaty as I was when we rolled into town." Mary complained as they drove to the Sheriff's. The SUV's air conditioning was far from adequate in the Kansas summer heat.

"You smell better now than when we got here." Marshall drawled.

Mary sneered at him and made that snorty, huffy noise that only women can make. "Nice, jerkwad."

Marshall took a deep breath and slanted a sideways look at her, "Can I say something?"

"I wish you wouldn't."

"You don't play real nice with others, Mare, and especially small town others, so I think it would be best if you let me do the talking…all the talking. Just stand there and look…unthreatening or something." he shrugged.

"Should I just smile and bat my eyelashes at them?" she practiced at him from the passenger seat.

He shuddered, "You do know that makes you look like a lioness perusing a herd of antelope, don't you?" She laughed and half heartedly clawed at the air, "Rowr." He joined her in chuckling at the image.

The Sheriff's office was a small, soapstone structure near City Hall and there were three patrol cars in the lot when they pulled up.

"Looks like the whole force turned out for this." was Mary's snide remark.

"Be nice." Marshall warned.

They walked in and eight pairs of eyes focused on them. Mary just knew this was going to be a cluster fuck and resigned herself to getting into trouble at least once while she was here. She heard Marshall let out a quiet, resigned sigh and realized he was thinking along the same lines.

Out of the seven law officers in the room, two looked put together and displayed the demeanor and body language of intelligence. The Sheriff was grossly overweight and had his feet up on his desk drinking a slurpy while playing cards with another deputy whose uniform looked like it had just come out of the package. Of the other three deputies, one had to be seventy years old, one looked like an alcoholic and the other one was definitely under twenty five. The department secretary could've been twenty or thirty. The caked on make up made it hard to tell.

For a department that was supposedly trying to solve a quintuple homicide, they weren't exactly taking the bull by the horns.

Marshall, always the diplomat, took off his sunglasses and announced to the room, "Good afternoon, gentlemen and lady, U.S. Marshals Marshall Miller and Mary Shepherd. We're here to observe the Campbell case. I'm sure you were notified?"

"Yeah," replied one of the young deputies, "they told us the feds were coming to stick their nose into our business."

The Sheriff pulled his feet down with a grunt and admonished the young man, "Now, Tucker, these nice folks are just here to observe. They're not going to work our case or mess with our investigation. Right Marshall Miller?" There was a slight undertone of warning to his words.

Marshall smiled in his disarmingly charming way and assured the staff, "Of course. Only as observers." Mary gave a tight smile also, hoping to look non threatening. She noted that the secretary was giving Marshall puppy dog eyes and cringed inwardly. "_She'll probably try to bed him before the trip is over._" Unbeknownst to Mary, her thoughts made her eyes narrow and the secretary caught the look and dropped her eyes to her papers quickly.

"A lady Marshal, huh?" sneered the likely alcoholic as he looked Mary up and down, "Didn't know they had any of those."

She shot him an evil, sweet smile and replied, "Yep, they even let us vote now too. You may want to check your calendar." Mary knew there always had to be one in every crowd, and the sooner you ignored them the sooner they'd quit. She dismissed the man as the other people in the room chuckled, and turned her attention to the fat man, "Sheriff Bowman, I know Inspector Miller and I would like to go over the details of the case with you and talk about any ideas you have so far…in private."

Mary missed the hateful look she received from the deputy she had addressed, but Marshall caught it and filed it away with a cautionary note. "_An angry man_." he thought.

The sheriff had levered himself out of his seat and motioned for the Marshals to join him and one of the deputies in a small conference room at the far end of the office. The door was closed behind them after they entered and Sheriff Bowman introduced the other man with him as Deputy Tony Alongi who'd been with the force for ten years. Luckily for Mary and Marshall, this was one of the men who seemed competent. The group went over the details of the case for about two hours. Marshall giving the sheriff and his deputy enough information to satisfy their curiosity, but not so much as to send them wondering why the pair was really here. The local force only needed to know the case was possibly related to a current federal trial. Satisfied that the deputies had so far only unearthed benign details, the Marshals asked for copies of some notes and documents to fax to Stan for their own investigation. Their job wasn't to solve the crime for the sheriff.

Taking a break, Marshall used the restroom while Mary talked with Deputy Alongi. On his way back to the conference room, he ran into two of the other men who had a question for him. One was Tucker, the newbie, and the other was the man who had insulted Mary. His nametag read Deputy Swafford.

"So, what's it like having a girl as a partner?" asked Tucker with a knowing wink, "You probably have to save her ass all the time, right? Any perks?"

Marshall kept a perfectly straight face and raised one eyebrow, "Actually, she's saved mine more often than I've saved hers. Don't doubt her ability." He switched his gaze to Swafford as his added, "Or her aim." Pushing by the two men, he returned to the conference room with a sigh. These people gave his gender a bad name. The secretary met him at the door with a cup of coffee and fluttered her eyelashes at him. He smiled at her uneasily and wondered how much longer they needed to stay here.

"We almost done here, Mare? It's been a long day and we planned on joining these folks at the scene tomorrow so they could show us around." Marshall hinted to Mary and raised a questioning brow at the sheriff and his deputy.

"Oh yeah…yeah," replied Bowman, "I don't think there's anything else. You and the little lady can run on back to your hotel and we'll meet you at the Campbell ranch around 7:30 tomorrow morning." Mary rolled her eyes.

Tucker, Swafford and one other deputy were still in the office when they headed out. Swafford called out, "Hey Miss Marshal, maybe you can help me with my shooting stance tomorrow?" The other men were quietly sniggering.

Marshall cringed because he knew Mary would now verbally decimate the man and there was nothing he could do about it. His partner stopped, put her hands on her hips and eyed Swafford up and down appraisingly. Finally, she smiled and said, "Hmmm…you look like a man who's a little too quick on the trigger. Not really worth a gal's time."

The men in the office howled with laughter as Swafford's face reddened and he sat down quickly. Mary pushed past Marshall as she exited the office with her partner not far behind.

"Was that necessary?" Marshall asked as they got into the truck. "He really doesn't like you, you know."

"Like I give a fuck if he likes me or not! Why do we have to go through that shit everytime we walk into small town USA? It's such a waste of time." Mary was pissed and buckled her seat belt with force.

He didn't have an answer for her and wondered the same thing himself. Mary always had to prove herself to these types of idiots and it grated on him just as it did on her. Marshall had never thought twice about it when he and Mary were assigned as partners. Maybe because he grew up in a family where females were just as accepted for wearing a badge as the males…and they could kick your ass just as well too.

"Is it really difficult to have a woman as a partner?" she suddenly asked him, startling him with the similarities between their thoughts.

Mary never thought to ask Marshall what he thought about that. She never felt like it bothered him, but a few of her previous partners had griped about it.

He looked at her warily, "A woman in general…or you in particular? Because that's two different questions."

"Let's start with the first one because I think your answer to the second will require me coming over there to inflict physical harm." she warned.

Marshall thought for a moment before replying slowly, "It's not that it's difficult, and I've never considered it a handicap in any way, but it can sometimes be tricky."

"Tricky how?"

"Well, that scenario back there at the sheriff's office for example. The ribbing you often take for being female. I don't really have a comfortable way to deal with that and I'm never quite sure how you're going to react so it puts me on edge. Or, for example, the ribbing I take when the other guys in a situation assume were sleeping together just because we're partners. When I deny it, it just cements their decision that it's happening." He glanced over at her to assess her reaction but she just looked thoughtful so he continued, "There's also the fact that I was raised to treat women properly and I'm used to opening doors, helping with coats, ladies first…that sort of thing. Well, it's a hard habit to break when we're in an ops situation or things go sideways because I can't think of you as a woman at that time. The rules are changed."

"So, you're saying I'm a liability to you in that situation?" she was looking at him in disbelief.

"No…no! I'm not saying that at all." he was quick to squelch her protest, "I just have to remember to switch gears. I've never doubted your abilities in the field and always know you'll cover my ass. I don't treat you any differently than any of my other partners. If I tried to treat you like a lady you'd probably rip my head off and hand it to me on a platter. Why is that, by the way?" He threw the question into her court.

"Seriously…you don't know the answer to that one?"

"Enlighten me."

"One, I've never been treated like a lady in my whole life, so that kind of stuff makes me uncomfortable. Two, if any of those misogynistic idiots see me receive even a whiff of preferential treatment it'll just prove to them that I'm incapable of doing the job. And three, as you've pointed out, I'm no girl." she smiled at him.

"You know I was joking, right?" he didn't like the fact that she felt as though being treated like a woman was a bad thing…and he was impressed that she used the word 'misogynistic' in a sentence.

Mary voiced her previous thoughts on the subject. "Marshall, when you're a woman in a man's job after a while they all tend to forget you're a woman. And that works out well most of the time. I'm used to it."

"I don't forget." Marshall said softly. He couldn't imagine ever forgetting that the creature sitting next to him was purely female.

She looked at him curiously after that remark, then chuckled, "Well…thanks. But don't expect me to let you get a glimpse of my ta-tas again if you ever do."

"Hooters." he was trying to hide a smile.

She shot him a look then saw his amusement and the game was on, "Knockers."

"Frost detectors." they both snorted at his choice.

"Super big gulps." both laughing out loud now and had to calm themselves before Marshall thought of another.

"Midget earmuffs." Mary was particularly amused with that one and slumped down in her seat as she laughed and begged, "Oh God…quit…stop, please!"

He smiled and tossed one last one out in a character voice then finished the drive back to the hotel in hilarity as his partner laughed so hard tears ran down her face.

"Scooby Snacks."

* * *

She didn't expect the nightmare. Hadn't had one for months, but the combination of heat and humidity, the long drive and the hassle of dealing with the Sheriff's office all coalesced into one ball of anxiety which manifested itself as the terror of that basement.

Her wrists stuck over her head, the smell of her sweat and fear and the reek of Chuck kneeling next to her. Stomach roiling from the after effects of the chloroform as her body ached from rough treatment during the abduction. Spanky's voice echoed in the dream as he said over and over, "Wrong answer". She knew what was coming and was trying to scream at Chuck to duck…run…something to keep the inevitable from happening. As the spray of blood hit her face and arm she screamed "No!" and woke sitting up clenching the covers, panting and sweating. She could still smell and taste the blood and she almost gagged. Slowly, she became aware of the hum of the air conditioner in the hotel room and the rustle of covers one bed over as her partner was awakened and sat up himself. No basement…no Chuck…no Spanky.

"Mare? ...What's wrong? ...Are you all right?" asked Marshall softly as he stared at Mary sitting up across the room. Her hoarse exclamation and sudden movement had brought him to full awareness quickly and he could hear her breathing rapidly.

"Nightmare." she whispered, not elaborating.

He waited and watched. She would either tell him about it or she wouldn't, but he wasn't going to pry.

"I can still smell the blood, Marshall. Feel his body hit my leg as he died…right next to me." The vividness of the dream was slowly fading and her breaths were slowing, heart not pounding quite as hard. Her head, however, was beating its own drum. She placed her fingers on her temples and slowly rubbed them.

"What do you need?" asked her partner.

She considered his words and relaxed a bit as she replied, "Ibuprofen, if you don't mind."

Marshall was out of the bed before she finished her sentence and walked to the bathroom to get the meds, a glass of water and a cool washcloth. Taking them to her, he sat on the side of her bed, lifted her hair and placed the cool cloth on the back of her neck after she took the pills. He knew her headaches usually originated from the tension in her neck and she liked the coolness.

"Thanks."

"You're still having nightmares?" Marshall asked. He knew they plagued her for a while after her abduction, but hadn't realized they were still present.

Mary stretched her neck as she answered him, "I haven't had one in a few months, and I've never had them when I'm with you so this one surprised me." She wondered about that now…if she was on the road with her partner or crashing at his house, the nightmares were always absent. "_I'm sure there's some crazy ass psychology there_." she amused herself with the thought.

Marshall was wondering the same thing. He watched her as he was sitting slightly behind her on the bed. She sat crosslegged, leaning forward with her elbows resting on her knees as she relaxed the muscles in her neck. He noticed the subtle tremble in her hand holding the water glass, the wispy, damp curling strands of hair near her temple…the bare skin visible between the bottom of her tank top and the top of her pajama pants. She had a freckle low on her right hip and he had to restrain himself from brushing a finger over it. Taking a slow, deep breath he stood and said, "Are you going to be able to get back to sleep?"

She sat up, looked at him and reached out to squeeze his wrist briefly with a smile. "Yeah…they don't usually linger. Go finish sleeping yourself."

He chuckled as he crawled back into his bed and scolded, "Don't go calling me for anymore drinks of water, young lady."

"Ha ha" she intoned dryly as she launched a well aimed pillow at his head.

"Hey!"

"Good night, nitwit." The dream did not linger, as she knew it wouldn't, and Mary fell back into a sound sleep with a cool cloth over her eyes. Marshall let himself slide back into slumber after he heard her breathing deepen…making sure all was well.

***** The bickering has begun and it won't get better soon. Prepare yourselves. Oh, and I lived in Kansas long enough to feel that I can insult the entire state with impunity!! Please send me reviews so I can keep all the characters on the straight and narrow. *****


	3. Chapter 3

***** It's hot, they're tired, they're hassled and it's not pretty. I just know that Marshall can be as prickly as Mary can...he's not afraid of her and she wouldn't keep him around if he couldn't give as good as he gets. They argued in my head for hours and this is what came out. Ladies and gentlemen, please make sure your seat belts are buckled securely as the pilot has informed us the next few miles will be a bumpy ride!*****

Mary had her head resting against the passenger side window as she watched the Kansas horizon continue unchanging. The drive to the Campbell ranch would take about thirty minutes and she truly hoped her head stopped pounding by that time. She had woken up twice more last night with nightmares, but they were less intense and didn't wake Marshall. The headache had been brewing since around four a.m. Between the coffee and the meds she took this morning, the throbbing had decreased to tolerable, but her right eye still watered and the knot next to her right shoulder blade remained. Sitting was the worst position for these headaches and she looked forward to getting out of the truck to walk around again. The cool air from the vent was blowing right on her face and it felt good.

"Jesus, you can't even enjoy the scenery out here. It's the same damn thing mile after mile." Mary never liked traveling through the plains. The visual monotony somehow made her feel lonely and deserted…echoing too much of her real life.

"When the Europeans settled this area, they had never seen grasslands this expansive, but prairies exist on every continent except Antarctica. There are only about one percent of the original prairies left, and most of them in the U.S. are national forests or protected land. Did you know there are types of prairie grasses that can grow to over nine feet tall?" Marshall liked the grasslands and could envision herds of buffalo racing across the horizon from times long ago. He glanced over at Mary and knew she wasn't listening because she had one of her nasty headaches. The set of her shoulders and the way she'd unconsciously stretched her neck as she put her right index finger to her temple were the tells. The stubborn woman would not say anything to him about it nor take any extra time to take care of herself. He shook his head in exasperation.

"Want me to work on that knot for you?" he asked.

Mary shifted her eyes over to him in surprise. She couldn't remember telling him she had a headache, but was certainly going to take him up on his offer. Turning her back towards him more fully, she put her forehead against the window and mumbled, "You know where it is."

Reaching over, Marshall kneaded the exact spot firmly and was rewarded by her groan of relief mixed with pain. He could feel the bunched up muscle under his fingers and winced in commiseration. He'd had his fair share of tension headaches, especially after being shot, and knew how hard it was to get rid of them.

"God dammit that hurts." she hissed. As her partner worked the knot, she could feel the endorphins roaming her body. She knew the pain of the massage would soon turn into relief from the shooting pain to her head and focused on relaxing.

A few minutes later, the SUV suddenly swerved as a large grain truck crowded their lane and Marshall had to over correct. He reflexively grabbed Mary to steady her, and in the position she was in, his fingers wrapped around her upper ribcage to rest on the side of her breast. The sensations that provoked startled her and she pulled away quickly just as he took his arm back to put both hands on the wheel. Mary looked at him sharply, but he didn't seem to have noticed the brief intimacy and was glaring at the rearview mirror. The endorphins were now dallying with other hormones and she felt a familiar ache that should not be associated with her partner. Studying his hands on the wheel, she realized how large and strong they looked and allowed her gaze to travel up his arm in assessment. His shirt was pulled tight against his bicep and the muscle flexed slightly as he gripped the wheel. That play against the fabric made her catch her breath and remember seeing him in just his t-shirt after he'd been shot in the chest. The man was all lean muscle and Mary actually wondered how that would feel under her hands when she wasn't trying to stick a tube in his chest.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" asked her partner warily.

Mary was snapped out of her reverie and embarrassed to be caught in the daydream. She rubbed her face with both hands as she snapped back, "What are you talking about?"

"You were looking at me like you couldn't decide which part to start with. Are you going to ravage me right here in the truck? Because we won't have much cuddle time afterwards before we get to the ranch." Marshall's own pulse rate had jumped with the look in his partner's eye and he was uncomfortable with the feelings she had just stirred up.

"You're having delusions of grandeur, moron. I wasn't thinking about you." she lied, her words slightly too harsh due to embarrassment.

Marshall felt a stab of disappointment and hurt and shot back, "Nice. Well, try to keep your brain out of your pants for the rest of the day or you'll have deputies plastered all over you if you look at them like that."

"I don't know, there's one or two of them that have potential." Mary said thoughtfully as she yanked her partner's chain.

"You're kidding, right? Not even you would stoop that low." Marshall had an expression of disgust on his face and his flustered emotions didn't allow him to realize she was joking.

"What the hell does that mean?" her lip curled as she turned to glare at him. "You think I just let anyone into my pants?" She was hurt by his statement and wondered what he really thought about her.

Marshall was on the defensive now, "Don't you? You did Epps." He could be as nasty as her if given the proper motivation, and embarrassment seemed to pull the trigger today.

Her mouth dropped open in amazement and her anger flared, "That's a shitty thing to say, fuckwit. Who crawled up your ass and stretched all of a sudden?" She turned back to the window because tears pricked the corner of her eyes. She thought they had settled their issues about Epps and tearing open that wound was just painful.

Marshall just stared straight ahead with his jaw bunched and ignored her. He knew his comment hit on a sensitive issue with her and she was hurt. He didn't know why he said it and regretted it too late. The heat was even getting to him and the baseline irritability he felt on this trip was starting to overflow into his interactions with others…especially Mary.

"Sorry. That was uncalled for." he apologized stiffly.

"Forget it."

He looked at her and tried again, "Mare, I really am sorry."

"Just leave it alone, Marshall. It's ancient history. Isn't that our turn?" she wouldn't look at him.

He turned into the long driveway leading to the ranch and parked next to the ranch hands' quarters by the other vehicles. The heat was cloying and the air reeked of burnt wood and flesh. The partners were surly and on edge as they climbed out of the SUV and the day wasn't going to get any better.

In addition to trudging around the ranch with sweat dripping between their shoulder blades and running into their eyes, the Marshals had to tolerate poor crime scene etiquette, lack of food for lunch and the general irritation of law officers without proper training. Mary warded off a number of poorly disguised advances and smiled thinly at off color jokes while Marshall grew tired of the winks and nudges and attempts to get him to rate his partner on a scale of one to ten. It was fairly obvious their presence was distracting to the locals' efforts by two in the afternoon and they decided to head back into town to review the gathered info at the sheriff's office where the deputies had gone shortly after lunch.

Mary still had a headache and now with being out in the heat and the scarce lunch, was feeling slightly dizzy and nauseous. She was grateful to be settling back into the truck that Marshall had the foresight to cool down before they piled in. Laying her head back against the seat, she closed her eyes and let the cool air flow over her.

"Do you need to go back to the hotel?" her partner asked out of the blue.

"Why? Do you?"

"No, but you look a little pale and I'm concerned."

"Worried I won't be able to do my job adequately? That I'm a frail little flower and might pass out at the mere mention of man's work?" her tone was bitter and unexpected.

"What? Where did that come from?"

"Oh, please. Like you didn't hear them all morning with their little jabs and innuendos that I can't possibly be an effective cop because I'm a woman. That I might swoon at the sight of a dead body or need someone to help me steady my gun." She glared at him from across the seat.

He shrugged a shoulder, "I heard some of it…had some of it directed to me too. I didn't think you'd actually let that bother you and I certainly hope you don't think I agree with them because that would piss me off." He had a feeling she was lumping him into an unflattering group of men and was too tired and sweaty to play her game.

"I'm thinking I may not actually know what you think of me after that comment this morning."

"Shit, Mare. I apologized for that." Marshall's language deteriorated as his anger grew.

"But you said it. I'm the one who talks before she thinks, Marshall, not you. When you say something you've been thinking about it for a while. At some level, your respect for me is in the gutter and I'm not feeling particularly comfortable around you right now." She was watching his face for signs of his feelings.

He snapped his head around to look at her with disbelief in his eyes, "You can't possibly believe I meant what I said this morning. Jesus, Mare, even I pop off without thinking once in awhile. You had hit a fucking nerve and I reacted…poorly. It's hot, we're not sleeping well and we have to deal with these morons all day. I'm not at my best. What do you want from me?"

She understood his rationale for bad behavior but was having a hard time backing down for the same reason, "I'd say honesty, but that doesn't seem to be on the table today." Not wanting to look at him anymore, she gazed out the window.

Every once in a while, Marshall wanted smack the crap out of his partner, and now was one of those times. She was implying he was lying to her and it was like poking him with a stick too many times. You either grab the stick and take it away or you poke back. He was in a poking mood today.

"Ha! That's rich, coming from you. If I had a dollar for every time you lied to me I'd be a wealthy man." He was squeezing the steering wheel hard now. She was silent for a few minutes, he could hear her breathing heavily and he tossed one more dig her way to address her silence, "Truth hurts, doesn't it sweetheart?"

Her words were low and heated when they came and she cast a nasty glare in his direction, "You can be a real fucking prick, can't you?"

He stared back and tipped an imaginary hat at her as he replied, "I've learned from the best."

The rest of the ride was continued in complete silence and you could've cut the animosity in the air with a knife. Neither looked at the other and they both just wanted to cry, but wouldn't. They didn't know why they occasionally took this path to intentionally hurt one another and they both knew it was only going to end in tears at some point, but they had no way to stop the landslide once it started. Anyone downstream would be wise to just get out of the way.

Mary lasted exactly one half hour at the sheriff's office. Between fighting with Marshall and the continued subtle insults by the men at the desks, her nerves were shot and her emotions raw. The headache was relentless and she just wanted to cool down and suddenly she felt her eyes well with tears. She fake yawned to cover the emotional breach and rubbed her eyes to indicate tiredness. Marshall wasn't fooled and she knew he was staring at her from across the room, but she wasn't going to look at him right now.

"Do you need a break, Mare?" he asked cautiously, and it was the wrong thing to say.

"Awwww…the lady Marshal is tired. Didn't get enough beauty sleep, huh? Gonna have to take a break from crime solving while Ms. Shepherd takes a nap, fellas." Tucker was feeling very self important and humorous for about three seconds.

Her tears were gone and she was furious and everyone within a half a block radius learned exactly what she thought of each member of the Quinter Sheriff's Office down to the details of their conception. During the rant, she stalked over to a shocked Marshall, grabbed the keys right out of his pocket and proceeded to leave the building on a resoundingly unflattering note.

She cried all the way back to the hotel, not caring that she stranded her partner at the cop shop. Throwing on her swim suit, she went to immerse herself in the decidedly cool depths of the hotel swimming pool where her tears were less likely to be noticed and she could work off some angry energy without putting bullets into something. She was miserable.

***** They are both just stewing. The're going to have to fight it out...keep reading!! And the reviews have been wonderful!! Please keep them coming :D *****


	4. Chapter 4

***** Sometimes it's just got be laid on the line. Painful, ugly and scary. Dig through the hard stuff...it gets better! *****

"What kind of stunt was that today?" came the low, angry male voice from above as she surfaced. "Do you honestly think I like to be the one who always has to clean up your mess whenever you get your feelings hurt?" He really wanted to reach down and dunk her back under the water, just for good measure. Marshall's anger had been building ever since he left the sheriff's office and all his doubts and hesitations about this partnership with the most insufferable woman on the planet were bubbling to the surface. He hadn't been this angry with her since they had argued about his transfer offer from Peterson.

Mary was startled by her partner's looming presence when her head emerged from the pool and she wiped the water out of her eyes to focus on him. His words were heavy with anger and she could tell by the set of his jaw and narrowed eyes that he was still royally pissed. She knew she shouldn't have mouthed off to the sheriff in the first place, and after storming out realized she had likely embarrassed Marshall and assuredly alienated most of the local police force. Mary was sure she had insulted the gene pool of most of the men in the office, and when Marshall had tried to diplomatically soothe her, she lumped him in with the rest of them.

Marshall squatted down so he could meet her gaze more effectively at the edge of the pool and continued to berate her. "I know you were not in the best mind set when we got back there, but you went off like a spoiled twelve year old. Really mature…and really embarrassing. Thank you so much for playing right into their hands, by the way, as I then had to listen to yet another round of why women can't handle this job because they're too emotional." He took a deep breath and gave her a little sneer, "You know what? I didn't even defend you after that…how could I when you had just so fantastically proved their point?"

His partner just stood in the pool and looked at him with her mouth slightly open after his last dig, then her eyes flashed as she crossed her arms over her chest and snapped back, "Something needed to be said, Marshall, and God knows you weren't going to do it. You knew I was barely hanging on to my sanity at that point, and instead of just letting me duck and cover, you had to say something to set them off. They have little minds, it was time to inform them of the reality of the situation and someone has to wear the pants in this partnership and I guess that's gotta be me. You may just let people walk all over you without ever telling them where to get off, but that's not how I operate." She moved to the side and pushed out of the pool to walk over to the chair for her towel.

Her partner stood back up and moved close enough to establish a height dominance, but not within reach of her. His tone was mocking and acerbic as he replied to her, "No, of course not. You operate by pushing everyone to the ground, kicking them in the balls a few times then daring them to get up and treat you like a queen. You'd try to do it to me too if you didn't need me to be your glorified errand boy." The last part of the sentence was nearly spat at her and he pulled himself up short before he said something he may want to recant later.

Turning slightly away from her, Marshall ran both hands through his hair and blew out a breath. This whole day had been an exercise in futility and his mood was especially foul. His own behavior towards her rubbed him the wrong way, and Mary's typical antics had become intolerable. He looked over his shoulder, "You're going to go down there tomorrow morning, apologize and make nice for the rest of the damn time we have to be in this hell hole. Got it?" He saw her eyes widen, then harden and he knew the shit was going to hit the fan and didn't care.

"I'm sorry," she said softly and with malice, "did you just give me an order? In what fucking universe do you think I would allow you to tell me what to do? There will be no apology and if any of them get into my face again for the rest of this trip I'll pull rank and get them confined to their playhouse." She stuffed her towel into her bag and threw her cover-up on over her suit, readying herself to go back to the room. She was nervous. Marshall was really pissed and he had never blatantly ordered her to do anything before. Still stinging from his remarks in the truck, and angry with herself for not being able to control her reactions, she was emotionally unprepared to fight with him.

He wasn't going to let her off easily this time. "Look at you. Jesus, Mary, you're going to run again. Are you that incapable of standing up for yourself without turning it into a temper tantrum that you get to escape while the rest of us have to stew about for hours…days? Stop throwing land mines in my path and stick around to actually resolve an issue." He saw the doubt enter her eyes but kept pushing, "You know you were wrong today and you had to know you embarrassed the hell out of me and you don't even care. You want me to defend you, stick up for you and kiss the asses of those you piss off, but do I get the same in return? Oh hell no! Marshall gets hung out to dry like the rest of the laundry you kick aside." He had to stop at that point as it became too personal to continue without becoming visibly upset. He knew this woman would never love him as he loved her, but when he saw such complete disregard for him as a person it stuck him in the gut like a hot poker. He turned to walk towards the pool, composing himself.

Mary knew he was right and it stuck in her craw, just adding to her frustration and anger. She saw the hurt in his eyes and guilt was piled onto the whole combination. Any other day she would run, but after his challenge a few moments ago she had to stay and she tried to defend herself the only way she knew how…push him away. "I don't ask you to clean up after me, asshole. You do that all on your own. You've made yourself my errand boy. My messes are my own and if they're strewn out behind me like the wake of a garbage barge then so be it. Who the fuck cares? I certainly don't." Her voice was like a whip and he flinched. Mary saw it and her next words never emerged. She knew she had said something damaging and her stomach curled in fear. "Marshall…" she softly pleaded.

He kept his back to her and slowly said, "It's nice to know you don't need me, Mary. I'll leave you to drown in your own garbage."

Marshall began to walk around the pool back towards the rooms. His eyes welled up with tears and his chest hurt. Mary trotted over to him and grabbed his arm, stopping him and saying, "Wait…just wait a minute."

"Let go of my arm, Mary." he said in complete seriousness, refusing to look at her. When she didn't let go, he reached over and put pressure on the tendon in her wrist that released her fingers and pulled his arm free, dropping her arm and continuing to walk. He could not continue to be around her right now without completely losing it. It was time to walk away.

She stood in shock with her hand tingling from his maneuver and watched him walk away. "Marshall!" she called, but he never hesitated and disappeared around the corner. Her heart was pounding and her head was roaring as the panic gripped her. He was leaving her and she was the agent of her own destruction. There was something about his tone and posture and the utter contempt she felt from him as he dropped her wrist that told her he was done. "Oh God." she whispered to herself as she became lightheaded and had to sit suddenly on one of the deck chairs. She hung her head between her knees and took deep breaths of air as her hands shook. Her worst fear was being realized and she didn't know what to do to fix it and the tears began to fall as she sobbed.

Marshall was on remote as he went back to the hotel room, grabbed his keys and headed out to the truck. He wiped away tears angrily and tried to stuff down his hurt and sadness. _"Why did her words hurt so much tonight?"_ he wondered. It was no different than a hundred other arguments they had had over the years. Same shit, different day, but today he felt mired in it. His brain was telling him he had to end this...this constant torture of his heart and soul as she remained just out of reach. She was like ocean waves crashing against his pier, relentless and constant and he was usually solid and strong and could withstand the onslaught. But he had weak spots and the waves occasionally struck them just right and they cracked. He had made many repairs over the years, but the cracks had grown deeper recently for some reason and he didn't want to crumble. The brain said to move on…

The heart, however, was not so easily convinced, and as he walked to the truck he saw her crumpled on the chair and sobbing. Crying because he had walked away from her. Crying because she thought he was abandoning her. She had no footing without him and he knew that, and she would continue to throw herself against the world with no regard to her safety or sanity without him to guide her. Over the years they had become too dependent upon each other and now separation would be like tearing off limbs…painful and debilitating, but the body would continue to function. The wound, however, would heal poorly and scar badly and the person would never be the same. He couldn't abandon her any more than he could stop loving her. The heart said he had to stay…

Sighing, Marshall continued to the SUV and resolved to return after driving a while to just think and calm down.

Mary vaguely heard the SUV leave the lot a short time later, and she knew he would be back. The job still came first and they weren't done here. There was time to fix this, she just knew she had to believe that and began to formulate a plan. Heading back to the room, her resolve was set.

He returned about an hour later and she was not in the room and he was glad. He felt better, but was still emotionally frazzled and needed just a little more time to ramp down before talking to her. By 8:30pm it was getting dark and he walked the perimeter of the hotel thinking she may have just gone to sit on one of the benches close by. He didn't find her and started to wonder where she would go. At 9:00pm he called her and she didn't answer. Hesitating, he decided not to leave a message and figured she was taking her own time to regroup. She was a big girl and he was sure there was not much trouble to be had in Quinter, KS.

Marshall called the sheriff's office at 11:00pm. He was now concerned and his stomach hurt with his new discovery. As he straightened up the room, he found her phone under her bag on the bed and it was off. Staring at it for a few moments, he could not think of why she wouldn't take it with her. After speaking with the sheriff, his confusion only grew and he really just wanted her to walk through the door. The sheriff told him Mary had been to the office earlier in the evening and apologized to him and his deputy quite graciously. They had talked for about forty five minutes and parted on good company. She had asked him the names of the other deputies that had been there that afternoon and had been on foot when she left. Not really sure what to think, Marshall called the bars in Quinter (all five of them) to see if she was there. Knowing how she could drink, especially if upset, he really didn't want to pull her out of some poor schmuck's bed tomorrow morning before he knew what hit him. No Mary, and no one by her description had been there all night.

At 12:30am he decided to go look for her. As he grabbed his badge he heard her key in the lock and she walked in. They stared at each other and he said gruffly, "Where have you been?" Relief was a welcome companion.

She dropped her eyes and softly replied, "I was picking up my garbage." She still stood in the doorway as though hesitant to enter the room. "I just need to get my things and then I'll get a different room." Her legs ached from walking for hours and she wanted to go to bed and forget for a while.

"Why didn't you take your phone? I've been calling you." He didn't want to reply to her assumption he would not want her to stay here with him.

Mary almost replied with her usual snap, but just didn't have the energy. "I didn't think you'd call. There was no one else I needed to talk to." She could barely stand to look at him because the sight of him twisted her insides. The familiar face, knowing eyes and sinewy build had wheedled their way into her heart and she missed them already even though he stood right there. "I went to the sheriff's office and apologized. You were right and I was wrong. I think they took it well." She shrugged one shoulder.

Her utter lack of spark bothered him and he noticed she was still standing in the doorway. "Mare, why are you standing in the doorway? Come in here." He didn't really know what to say to her…the after effects of their fight and hurtful words weighed heavy on both of them. "Where did you go after you left the sheriff's?" he asked, having not been able to come up with any idea as to what she had been doing.

She was still standing near the now closed door as she replied with a small, self depreciating smile, "There was a lot of garbage. I went to each of their houses and apologized. It took a while." It was the only thing she could think of to do to make things right and she did it.

Marshall realized she had visited five houses to make personal apologies to men who had given her nothing but grief, lewd looks and catcalls for two days and couldn't grasp it. He just never knew what she would do, and when push came to shove her true character shone through. "They didn't all deserve apologies." he stated.

"No, probably not, but they got one anyway." She smiled tightly then looked him in the eye, "I saved you for last because you need more apologies from me than I think I can give you. I probably should've started apologizing to you before I even met you." She dryly chucked at herself and her eyes filled with tears.

Marshall had a lump in his throat and walked closer to her as she looked down at the carpet again. "Mare, I owe you at least one apology too."

"No, you don't. There was nothing you said that wasn't true." Her eyes were clear and serious as she looked at him. "I need to tell you something, and I just need you to listen."

Marshall was afraid to even move because he didn't know what he was going to hear.

Mary took a deep breath, looked at his chest and poured her heart and soul into a speech she knew she could only give once. "Marshall, if I haven't told you lately that you are my best friend, then I apologize, because you are. If I haven't told you lately that you are a good man, then I apologize, because you're the best man I know. If I haven't told you lately that I respect you, then I apologize, because I respect you more than any other person on this planet." She had tears running down her face now and swallowed, holding up her hand because she saw him start to move towards her and she wasn't finished. "If I haven't told you lately that you are my hero, then I apologize, because I wouldn't be able to do this without you."

"_Stunning,_" Marshall thought in amazement, "_she is absolutely stunning._" Her words were nearly whispered at the end and he could see her shaking with effort. The utter sincerity and purpose in her voice wrapped around him and he felt renewed. How he thought he could ever leave her, he didn't know, because the woman that stood before him was why he loved her. The bad attitudes, the pushy crassness…all those outer shells she wore…they were stripped away and Mary emerged. Beautiful, but delicate to the touch and not to be handled with anything but care. It was those glimpses into her true nature that hooked him long ago and sealed his fate with hers to this day. Her words calmed the ocean and repaired the cracks in his foundation.

She raised her eyes to his, not knowing what to expect and found his face just as tear streaked as hers. "I'm so sorry." she whispered, "Please don't leave." She clung to the mere hope that her actions would be acceptable penance and he would forgive her.

He closed the distance between them and wrapped her in his embrace, her arms seizing him and holding him tight as if he would get away. They didn't say anything, just let the tension abate, the tears slow and their world tilted back towards normal. Marshall finally murmured into her hair, smiling, "I'm not leaving you, but if you try to push me down and kick me in the balls I'll toss your little ass into the next county!" She chuckled into his chest and retorted, "You and what army, buddy?" They laughed.

He pulled back and looked at her, smoothing her hair back from her face. She looked like hell and he likely didn't look any better. Shaking his head he wondered aloud, "Why do we do this to each other? Why can't we just fight like normal people and smack each other around?"

She smiled knowingly and said, "Because we get all excited when we get to smack people around and then you know where that could lead…" raising her eyebrows at him.

He looked thoughtful as he replied, "Hmm…maybe we should try it out. Might work for us." peeking down at her with a grin. She felt her knees get a little wobbly with that remark and tried to refocus.

"I'll tell you what. Next time you're pissed at me, let's just go straight to the smack down, because I don't think I can do this again." She joked, but the strain in her voice was evident and Marshall could still feel her trembling. He suddenly remembered how crappy she had looked after they left the ranch.

"Did you ever eat today?" He had grabbed something when he drove around earlier, but doubted she had given it a thought.

Shaking her head, she replied, "It wasn't high on my list of things to do."

Marshall quickly resumed his role of keeper and they were soon sitting crosslegged on the bed eating their breakfast from the cooler and bantering as usual. It was like a forest after a violent storm. The trees still stood, though there were a few leaves missing and the branches may be slightly askew, and the air was fresh and clean as though it had been scrubbed. The dirt and grime was washed away and all who dwelt there were refreshed, appreciating what had survived.

***** dang...I'm exhausted after that. I know...they didn't make up like so many were hoping...but the story's not over yet!! Please let me know your continuing thoughts!!! Click the button :) *****


	5. Chapter 5

***** Deep breath...sigh of relief. M/M back to normal and Kansas adventure continues with new obstacles. Enjoy your early Turkey Day treat!*****

The next day was just as hot and humid and miserable as the day before and the pair of Marshals headed out to the Campbell's ranch to meet the Sheriff's team for another round of evidence gathering and excavation. Mary already had her shirt sleeves rolled up to her elbows and sweat beading in her cleavage even with the SUV's air conditioner running. Her ear hurt again today which just added insult to injury in a climate like this. Blowing stray hair from her ponytail out of her eyes, she began to grumble.

"What more can they possibly think they're going to find, Marshall? We have all five bodies, the house was ransacked and the barn torched. You and I both know this was a hit, but what are the locals looking for?"

"Like they said yesterday, Gabe Campbell was not well liked. Apparently there are multiple possible suspects good for this. Since they don't lynch people here anymore, Mare, I guess they may want to have actual evidence to accuse one of them and go to trial." He didn't want to be out here again either and the heat was already irritating. Of course, his sleeves were buttoned around his wrists like they were supposed to be.

She sighed, "God, I hope they give up after today. Did Stan get anything off of the prints and pictures we sent him?" She knew Marshall had checked his email early this morning.

"Nothing yet. He'll keep us updated."

They pulled into the driveway at the ranch and stepped out into the sticky air. "_Air you can wear_" said the too perky weather bimbo this morning on the local channel. Mary took a deep, calming breath and repeated her new mantra in a low voice "…the locals are my friends…the locals are my friends…" as she and her partner walked towards the house.

The same young deputy who was guarding the door the last two days was there again and had to check their credentials…again. She just smiled and nodded and could hear Marshall snickering at her behind her back as they passed into the cool interior.

"You know I can reach you, right?" she tossed over her shoulder.

He backed up a step or two immediately and rechecked her range.

The morning went very smoothly, actually, and the deputies Mary had visited the night before were friendly and more respectable than they had been. The tension from earlier days was gone and the local force felt they had made some progress on the case. Lunch was brought in by a town diner and afterwards Marshall went with three of the men to walk through the barn and ranch hand's quarters while Mary stayed at the house and wandered through the rooms thinking about the timeline of the crime. Squatting down in front of the filing cabinet in the back office, she was perusing Campbell's invoices when she heard a voice behind her.

"What are you looking for there, Miss Marshal?" Deputy Swafford stood in the doorway.

She startled slightly, looked at him then went back to reading the files, "Just reviewing the invoices to confirm the events leading up to the night of the murders." She didn't like Swafford and was glad he was not one of the men she had to visit last night. He had been off yesterday.

"You and your partner seem a bit closed mouthed to me. Why don't you tell me the real reason you're here poking your pretty little nose into our business?" He had moved further into the room.

Mary's gut sensed menace and she stood quickly to turn and look at him. Game face on. "We're here for the reason given to your Sheriff. Take it or leave it, I really don't care." Her well trained nose smelled liquor on him and she noticed his eyes were mean. "You should probably wait until after you leave a crime scene to tank up, Swafford." Mary measured the distance to the door behind the man.

He moved a few steps closer to her with narrowed eyes and she held her left hand up in front of her while her right stayed loose and close to her holster. "I assure you, Deputy, making threatening moves towards me is not a course of action you should continue. I'm not known for being a nice girl." She stepped to his right while keeping an eye on him and moved toward the door. This Tarzan crap was wearing her out and she wondered how much longer it would be before she and Marshall could get back to the hotel.

"You need to be taught some manners, girly." sneered the deputy as he swiftly grabbed her upper left arm as she moved by. His grip was bruising as his fingernails dug in and he swung her back towards him. The next thing he knew, he had Mary's flat and stony gaze focused on him and the muzzle of her Glock in his crotch.

"Let go of my arm…now." she hissed softly. He squeezed harder and she shoved her gun into soft tissues, satisfied to hear him grunt in pain and bend over slightly. "Do not think I won't leave your wife with a situation even Viagra can't fix. Assaulting a Marshal is a federal offense." Leaning in a little closer, she whispered, "I told you I wasn't a nice girl." Another shove from the muzzle and he dropped her arm to put his hands over his groin. Mary quickly exited the room with one eye on the deputy.

She turned to walk to the front room while holstering her gun and nearly ran into her partner coming down the hall the other way. Marshall saw the tense body language as he watched her holster her weapon. He looked at her, looked at the doorway of the room she just left then returned his gaze back to her with a tilt of his head.

"Trouble?"

She gave him that tight little smile of irritation and said, "Not anymore" as she looped her arm around his and turned him to take him into the front room with her. A short time later he saw Swafford exit the hallway and looked at his partner again to see her watch the man with malice as he left the house. She didn't look messed with, but something had transpired between the two that provoked her to draw her weapon and his protective instincts swelled up. He decided to have a few carefully placed words with the deputy later…discreetly.

Within an hour, thunder could be heard and Mary watched her partner perk up and look out the window like a cat sighting an injured bird. She knew he was a total weather fanatic and watched the Weather Channel everyday, so the fact that thunderstorms were approaching made him very happy. Mary didn't particularly care for thunderstorms, the wind made her anxious.

"I'm going to go outside and check out the weather. Okay with you?" he asked her.

She shrugged, "Yeah, sure. Whatever peels your banana, geek." He practically trotted out the door and she smiled at his enthusiasm. They had both been getting slightly testy again with the heat and monotony of the day, so any distraction was probably welcome.

As soon as he was out the door, Marshall knew the approaching thunderstorms would be strong. He could see the towering cumulonimbus clouds with anvils spread out at their tops, infusing the air with electric current and some subtly sensed power. His eyes lit up as he stood out in the yard and watched the lightning flicker in the clouds a few miles away and was sure he could identify a wall cloud. A movement caught the corner of his eye, and when he turned to look, he saw Deputy Swafford headed from the barn towards the house. Eyes narrowed, he moved to stand in the man's path, and the deputy had to pull up short to keep from running into him.

"You got a problem, Miller?" Swafford asked while eyeing the taller man.

"No, but I sense you have one with my partner." Marshall's eyes were piercing.

"She seems to be lacking manners. You need to remind her of her place before someone puts her in it."

Marshall was amazed at the man's stupidity and total lack of respect for Mary, even after it appeared she had pulled her weapon on him. He really wanted to just punch the guy in the face for the hell of it, but managed to remain barely civil. "She's not to be trifled with, Deputy, and I won't save you from her if you provoke her."

Swafford didn't like being threatened, and especially didn't like the implication he would have to be saved from a woman. "You better hope **she** doesn't provoke **me**. I don't much care for uppity women and would be happy to teach her a lesson." The second flask of whiskey he had finished off in the barn made him reckless and he was unaware of Marshall's growing anger until the tall man leaned forward slightly and pinned him with a ferocious glare.

"If you so much as breathe on her, you'll provoke **me**…and no one will be able to save you then." His words were low and icy, and the ominous weather and stifling heat made the threat all the more potent. Marshall saw Swafford's eyes register the seriousness of his words and the deputy backed up a few steps then turned to walk to the house with a glance back over his shoulder at Marshall.

Marshall had no doubt Mary could handle herself, but some primitive male need to claim her as his drove him to warn Swafford off. He knew if Mary had seen the exchange she probably would've shot them both in the balls just to shut them up and prove a point.

Chuckling at that thought, he turned back to peruse the storm and shouted out loud, "Wow! I can't believe it!" He ran towards the house.

Mary jumped as Marshall came bursting through the door and ran over to grab her arm. His face was lit up like Christmas and he was babbling, "You have to see this! C'mon…c'mon, hurry!" He was literally pulling her out of her chair, and his actions were so uncharacteristic that she just let herself be manhandled out into the yard.

The wind was starting to whip up in bursts and gusts, rain was starting to spit and Mary could feel the weight of the storm in the air. She didn't like it and unconsciously sidled closer to her partner as they trotted out. Marshall grinned like an idiot and pointed to the prize and Mary just about wet herself. Across the prairie, no more than five to seven miles away, was a tornado. It was gray and huge and the clouds around it were roiling. She stared at it in horror and awe. The other people at the ranch were also standing in the yard and their excitement could be heard in the yells and whoops.

Marshall was ecstatic! He had always wanted to storm chase and doubted he could've seen a better sight than this if he tried. The storm with the funnel was moving parallel to the ranch, so there was no danger of the tornado catching them and he was just completely enthralled with the experience. He pumped his fists into the air and shouted, "Yeah!!" Then, thinking straight for a moment, pulled out his cell phone and clicked some pictures. "_Stan's going to love this!_" he thought to himself. The wind had picked up and was whipping the dust and leaves around and he knew it would start to rain and possibly hail soon on the back side of the storm. Just a few more minutes to revel in the experience, and he turned to see what Mary thought.

She was staring at the storm with a look of utter fear and he suddenly felt awful that he hadn't noticed sooner. "Aw, Mare, it's all right. It's not going to hit us and it's at least seven miles away. Come here." He tugged at her wrist and pulled her up next to him with his arm around her shoulder. She didn't protest, which said a lot for her peace of mind.

She felt much better closer to him, but still didn't trust that the terror provoking tornado wasn't going to mow them all down. "You're an idiot, Marshall. We should not be out here! What if that thing turns on us?"

Chuckling, he explained, "Tornadoes don't suddenly turn on a dime. They tend to follow a very straight path for up to a few miles then peter out and die. They go in the direction of the storm, and that storm is moving northeast and is already north of us."

"What if there's another one coming? I really want to go inside now. Do they have a basement or something?" She didn't want to be out here feeling like lightning bait, nor did she want to go inside and be by herself. Stuck. The gods smiled on her because at that moment it began to rain and hail with vigor and everyone ran for shelter.

They were all mostly soaked as they regrouped in the kitchen and everyone was talking about the storm. Marshall and another deputy were comparing cell phone pictures and she watched in amazement as her partner acted like a ten year old in a candy store. He was completely animated and smiling and she felt herself get caught up in his excitement. He saw her watching him and came over to hug her shoulder again as he said, "That was outstanding! You have to admit it was thrilling…right?"

"I will admit it was a one of a kind experience. Insane. Please let's not do it again?" she laughed as their eyes met and the glee and mischievousness in his caused a little frisson of warmth to uncurl in her belly. She dropped her eyes in confusion, and he was off again to compare pictures with another man in the kitchen. "_What just happened?_" Mary wondered. She didn't know why her partner was having such odd effects on her hormones lately. First the breast conversation on the way here combined with the inadvertent touch yesterday, then the odd moment last night after the fight, now this. Shaking it off, she chalked it up to adrenaline and the testosterone overload in the kitchen. Feeling a bit like she was in a boy's locker room, Mary noted the rain had let up and stepped out onto the wrap around porch outside the front door for some fresh air.

A minute or two later, Deputy Swafford stepped out onto the same porch, moved to the other side of the steps, and leaned against the railing to light up a cigarette. Mary gave him a sidelong glance, but said nothing and ignored him.

"I guess your boyfriend decided you could be let out on your own." sneered the deputy.

Mary rolled her eyes and begged God to give her patience with stupid men. "Don't start with me asshole. I can shoot you from over here too."

"If you didn't have that piece on you I'd teach you a lesson in respect." The disgusting man just didn't know when to quit.

Mary shook her head in disbelief as she glared at him. "You've got a hard on for me for some reason, Swafford, and I'm not sure why that is. Maybe you were raised in a cave by wolves, maybe you got smacked around by an ungrateful parent…I don't know and I don't care. But what I will tell you is this: drop it. It can only end badly for you and I guarantee that. I'm leaving town in a couple of days, and then Mayberry will be safe from Lady Marshals forever more." The sarcasm was dripping off her tongue by the end.

Swafford threw his cigarette into the yard and took a step towards her with maliciousness on his face. "You're a sassy little bitch, aren't you?"

"So I've been told. Is that a problem?" Mary grinned at him and got ready to fight. It would almost be too easy and she was slightly disappointed. "You do know that if you come over here I'm going to kick your ass in front of all of your friends. You may want to think about that for a minute." She only felt it was fair to warn him.

Studying his body language, she knew he was off balance already and would be slow. With the steps this close, she figured a few well placed maneuvers would have his fat ass sitting in the mud puddle under the bottom step. She knew she shouldn't provoke him, but now she wanted to fight. Mary was sick of the ribbing and sick of this state and figured the whole trip might be worth it if she could just throw one good punch at a jerk who deserved it.

"But as I noticed earlier, you don't have the balls to take me on." She knew it was perfect as the rage lit up in his eyes.

Swafford dove at her while throwing a big, slow haymaker and she easily dodged to the side allowing him to run right into the rail where she had been standing. Even though it would be too easy to hit him, she just stood back and waited. He'd come at her again. Sure enough, after recovering his balance, he grunted and hurled himself at her again and she stepped aside, blocked and used his momentum to send him spinning towards the stairs. Trying to check his fall, Swafford unexpectedly threw an arm back and snagged her wrist as he went down.

"Fuck!" she yelped as they went down the steps together and landed in the mud at the bottom of the stairs. She scrambled up and immediately slipped to fall back on her butt. Swafford recovered enough to grab her ankle and they both froze as a voice announced, "That's enough! Let her go."

Marshall stood at the top of the steps with his hand on his weapon and Deputy Alongi stood right behind him in the same pose. The other men stood on the porch looking down at them and trying not to laugh. Alongi directed Swafford to go stand by the tree in the front yard. Marshall was staring daggers at the muddy man, then turned his gaze to Mary and said, "You. Up here with me."

Alongi came down and assisted Swafford into the yard and Mary unstuck herself from the mud and climbed the stairs towards her partner and the other men. As she reached him she said under her breath, "He started it." Marshall just glared at her for a moment until he gave instructions to the men on the porch, "Nothing to see here, gentlemen. Just a misunderstanding. Why don't you all head back inside?" They chuckled amongst themselves and filed back into the kitchen leaving Mary and Marshall on the porch.

She was a muddy mess and Marshall's lips quirked into a reluctant smile as he looked her over. "I wondered how you'd look after mud wrestling. That fantasy is completely shot to hell."

"Can it, Doofus. I was serious when I said he started it…and no one landed a single punch. He just managed to snag me on the way down. Otherwise it would've been a beautifully masterminded self annihilation."

"You're all right then?" he was still doing a sweep for injuries.

"Only thing hurt is my dignity and my ass. Hit a few steps at the bottom there." She rubbed her right cheek vigorously.

"I could rub that for you later." Marshall offered with a smirk and Mary's mouth dropped open as she stared at him.

"What is with you on this trip?! My anatomy seems to be of extraordinary interest to you. Are you on some new kind of vitamin or something?" She left out the fact that the brief image of Marshall's hands massaging her ass caused her neck hair to stand right up in tingly anticipation.

Marshall actually looked a little embarrassed and shrugged, "I blame an environment of too much testosterone and too few brain cells. It's time to get the hell out of Dodge."

"You don't have to ask me twice." Mary went into the house to wash some of the mud off and basically ignored the snickers and quiet cheers of the men inside. It was all good natured, at least, and her mood was slightly mended by the time Marshall had put a tarp over the passenger seat for the ride home.

"So…who would I be wrestling?" Mary suddenly asked with a sly grin as they turned onto the highway.

"What?" her partner looked completely confused.

"In your fantasy…who was I wrestling?"

"Uh…" reduced to a grunt, Marshall was frantically trying to figure a way out of answering the question and wishing the SUV was equipped with an eject button for the passenger seat. "_Danger!...Danger, Will Robinson!_" screamed his brain.

Mary gleefully noted that she now knew exactly how those antelope would look as she stalked her prey.

"C'mon, partner. You've got me greased up and slapping skin with another hot babe and I think I have the right to know who it is." She pitched her voice low and sultry and saw his Adam's apple bob as he swallowed nervously.

Marshall tried to be articulate and calm…he really did, but the blood was draining out of his brain and headed south at her choice of words and his coherence went along with it. "Well…you know…there's not really one particular person. I mean, not that there's a lot of people…at one time…just two and me, but I'm not wrestling because I'm watching and…that doesn't sound good either, does it? Can I think about it and get back to you later?" It was a desperate attempt to save face.

"Oh, I think you've thought about it quite enough." she was completely entertained by the myriad of expressions rippling across his face and the slow blush creeping up his neck. This was perfect pay back for flustering her earlier in the trip.

"Adjust your pants and drive, horndog." she laughed at him and shook her head.

"I should've sacrificed you to the tornado when I had the chance." He reached over to smack her shoulder and got mud all over his hand for his efforts. She grabbed his hand and forced him to wipe it on his own shirt, knowing how much that would irritate him.

They were both giggling with the struggle and he swerved a bit as he fended her off.

"Keep your eyes on the road, idiot! I don't want my tombstone to say I died in Kansas!"

He wore nearly as much mud as she did by the time they got back to the hotel and they raced for the shower. Marshall tripped her as they entered the room and tossed her on his bed then sprinted to the bathroom and shut and locked the door just as she reached it.

"Hey!" She yelled from the other side of the door, "What happened to ladies first and all that crap? I can't believe you just dissed a girl!"

There was a muffled laugh from the bathroom followed by his voice, "You're no girl!"

Mary smiled in satisfaction and sat down on the floor to watch the Weather Channel until he came out, happy for the first time since they had gotten there.

***** fun!! Here's a link to the picture that inspired the tornado scene. I'm totally using the reviews like catnip...so keep them coming!! *****

***** I can't type in the full link, so you put in the http and www: **then** /pic2004 **then** /040612-13 **then** .jpg *****


	6. Chapter 6

***** Veils begin to fall away, Mary is naughty and Marshall gets to show his teeth. Fun all around! *****

The Marshals decided to spend the next day hunkered down in the air conditioned comfort of the sheriff's office reviewing the background of Gabe Campbell and checking over the most recent info on the case for any sensitive items. Mary was finishing dressing and was using her hands to fluff her hair dry before putting on her dress shirt. Her lips quirked into a smile as she saw Marshall once again sucked into the weather reports.

"Are we going to be transported into the Land of Oz yet again today?" she asked, actually slightly worried there would be more storms.

"Nope. The front has moved east, so we should have clear skies today." He turned to look at her as he continued, "The temperatures should actually be a little…what the hell?" His expression darkened as he interrupted himself and rose from his seat.

He was staring slightly left of her and her brow furrowed as she turned to look behind her, "What? What's wrong?" Turning back to face him, she found him standing in front of her and he took her left wrist and elbow into his hands while extending her arm away from her side. She tried to lightly jerk it out of his grasp, but he held on firmly as his eyes were intent on her upper arm. She curiously followed his gaze and cringed.

A nasty, angry bruise wrapped around her upper arm and was obviously from a hand, thumb bruise over her bicep and fingers around her tricep. There were even little crescent shaped spots where Swafford's fingernails had dug in. She honestly hadn't thought twice about it. In their line of work, there're always bumps and bruises and new ones pop up all the time.

Marshall's face was flat as he shifted his gaze to hers and said, "That's new. Who?"

She was a little confused by his angry attitude and answered flippantly, "That's what earned Swafford my gun in his crotch yesterday."

"Is that what happened back in the office?"

"Yeah. It's no big deal," she shrugged as he still held her arm, "why are you acting weird?"

"This isn't an accidental bruise, Mary. He meant to hurt you and this took some force. It's intentional and it's assault." Marshall knew it had to have hurt and was irritated that she had never said a word to him about it yesterday. He was going to rip Swafford a new one today if he saw him and the menace must've shown on his face.

Mary was concerned about her partner's reaction and tried to talk him down a bit, "Don't get your undies in a bundle, numbnuts. We get scrapes and bruises doing this job all the time…intentional and unintentional. I've got a pretty one on my butt cheek from going down those stairs too. It's not worth our time or effort to diddle Swafford, he's an idiot. We're out of here in a day or two and he'll be history." He was still staring at the bruise and very lightly brushed one finger over it, giving her goosebumps.

Marshall wasn't quite sure why this bruise bothered him so much. She was right…getting beat up was sometimes part of the job. It was the deliberateness of this injury that angered him. That she was targeted for pain. He took it personally.

"Hey," Mary softly called his attention to her as she gently pulled her arm away, "what's going on in that head of yours?"

His eyes met hers and she saw compassion. "Sometimes I just get tired of watching you take all the punches. You never complain and most of the time you won't even tell me you're hurt. I just wish you'd let me stand in front of you for a while and take them myself…give you time to catch your breath."

It was probably one of the nicest things anyone had ever said to her and it made her heart ache. She stared at him in wonder and it took her a moment to find her voice. "I don't think I know how to stay out of the way of the punches, Marshall. But I'll try to be better about letting you know when they land. And if you want to snag one once in a while I guess that would be okay." She didn't quite realize it, but she had just given him permission to protect and care for her.

Mary felt compelled to reach up and brush a stubborn piece of hair away from his forehead and she was caught by his gaze. He gently snagged her wrist and leaned in slightly when his phone rang. They both jumped and laughed nervously while dropping their gazes to the carpet. "It's Stan." he said as he took the call. Mary gratefully turned to get her blouse and pulled it over her tank as she finished preparing to head out. "_This damn trip keeps getting weirder and weirder._" She decided. A bit disappointed, though, as she wondered what would've happened if Stan hadn't called right then. "_Stop it!_" she berated herself yet again. Now was definitely not the time for her libido to get any ideas.

Marshall hung up with his boss and wondered what the hell just about happened a few minutes ago. She had brushed his hair out of the way and when her gaze met his, he saw her lips part slightly and that's all he could think about. His brain had announced, "_target acquired!_" and piloted him on his way. Funny thing was, he had a feeling she was thinking the same thing, and that was weird. "_Get it together, Mann_" he chastised himself as he finished buttoning his shirt and tucking it in.

"Stan said one set of prints they pulled at the scene was a hit in the secure DEA database. It may be info we'll have to discreetly bury and he'll let us know soon. Otherwise, anything else uncovered is fair game for the sheriff as far as Headquarters is concerned." Marshall grabbed his things as he updated Mary and he could see her rolling the info around in her head.

"Well, we know whoever contracted the hit had to use local talent, so the sheriff will get someone he can hang out to dry even if it's not the coordinator of this whole thing. Shouldn't be too hard to snag those prints now while the case is still relatively disorganized. Even if anyone noticed them, they didn't link up to an ID so they probably put them on the back burner. Let's pull them today and just tell Stan we've taken care of it." Shop talk had replaced any lingering thoughts about the encounter a few minutes ago and they piled into the SUV plotting a strategy for evidence manipulation.

About two blocks from the sheriff's office, Mary suddenly said, "Ice cream!"

"You scream!"

"What?"

"What?...you started it."

"You're such an idiot." Mary sighed and rolled her eyes, "I want ice cream. There's a Dairy Queen just down the block and I want a Dilly bar."

"Where did this come from?" Marshall was used to her odd food requests at times, but this one was really out of left field. He made the lane change to get to the Dairy Queen…of course, never denying her.

"We've driven by the damn thing every day while soaked with sweat and never thought to stop for ice cream. I've made a decision that we will get it today before we sweat." She was now anticipating the chocolate goodness of a Dilly bar and leaning forward in the seat a bit as they pulled into the parking lot.

She just about skipped into the building and there were only two or three other people there. Looking at the menu board, Mary suddenly smiled and cast a surreptitious glance at her partner as she announced, "I changed my mind."

"You don't want Dairy Queen?"

"No. I don't want a Dilly bar…I want that number 6 thing." she pointed at the board and watched Marshall's reaction. Not disappointed.

The "number 6 thing" was a frozen banana on a stick, dipped in chocolate and rolled in sprinkles and nuts. Marshall was immediately alarmed.

"No…you are not getting that."

She pouted, "Why not? It looks really good."

He narrowed his eyes and leaned in to speak in a lower voice, "I know what you're going to do with that. I've seen what you can do over a telephone, and there is no way I'm letting you traumatize the whole sheriff's office with that banana." He was trying really hard to keep a straight face and be stern. He couldn't disguise the mischief in his eyes, though, and Mary saw it.

"Please? I promise it'll be good for you too." she wiggled her eyebrows in shared deviousness.

A slow grin spread across his face as he shook his head. "I'm going to regret this, aren't I?"

"Probably. But you'll love me all the same!" she winked as she turned to order and he knew she didn't realize the utter truth of that statement.

Mary thoroughly enjoyed traumatizing the entire sheriff's office with her slow consumption of the frozen banana on a stick for the next thirty minutes. Only Marshall knew she was putting on a carefully choreographed show, and even he had to avert his eyes at times. She was disturbingly skilled with the banana and finally he casually walked over to stand next to her, covertly grabbed a belt loop on her pants to jerk her towards him slightly and whispered in her ear, "Finish it."

Seeing the heat in his gaze, she pulled the last bit of food off the stick and popped it in her mouth, smiling the whole time. Her insides went a little tingly when she felt his breath on her ear and she was secretly proud of herself for even getting a reaction out of her partner. She licked her fingers and watched him watch her mouth and that little ache started up again in her belly. His eyes snapped back to hers and they were darker now…intense. "_Holy crap…when did I become the antelope?_" she suddenly thought as she unconsciously leaned into him a bit.

The moment was jarringly broken as the sheriff came out of the conference room loudly announcing his discovery of the envelope of evidence the Marshals had requested. No one had noticed Mary and Marshall's private moment and they sprang apart guiltily. She chuckled and shook her head as to clear it and Marshall shrugged his shoulders a couple of times as to release tension. Both had jumbled thoughts, but didn't take too long to recover as they once again focused on the task at hand.

At one point in the morning, Marshall pulled Deputy Alongi aside and asked him a few questions about Swafford's job performance and if they had had any problems with him. The abusive deputy was absent today and not answering calls to his phone. Marshall told him about Swafford's threat to his partner and Alongi understood his concern. They both assumed the man was off licking his wounds somewhere and were glad of it.

After lunch, the team was working on delving into the background of three suspects that had risen to the top of the list. The secretary had the only other web access in the office besides the Sheriff, so she was put in charge of searching for a prescribed list of info for each suspect. She called Mary over at one point and Mary leaned over the desk to see what she was pointing at.

"Marshall, was there another name for Andrew Hanch? Marci's found his social security number hooked to an Andrew Reynolds and I suspect he may have a few aliases tucked away." Mary called back to the men at the Sheriff's desk.

She heard the door open behind her and Marshall looked up to give her an answer. Her partner's eyes widened and his expression became alarmed. He was moving as he barked, "Mary!"

She knew there was danger behind her and she spun around to confront it. She was quick enough to realize the man was throwing a punch as he lunged at her, but not quick enough to launch an effective defense. Her left arm was coming up to block and it deflected the blow enough that it didn't land on her checkbone, but hit her between her left temple and ear instead. Less damaging, but the immediate effect was the same. Mary was spun around nearly off her feet and thrown into the line of chairs near the secretary's desk. She went down tangled in the furniture and lay still.

Swafford had a brief moment of triumph before he heard a guttural growl from his left and his world exploded in pain as Marshall was on him like a fly on shit. It took forty five seconds and four deputies to pull the tall man off of John Swafford, and two of the deputies were nursing injuries of their own afterwards. Swafford needed an ambulance and the sheriff's office talked about it for years to come. None of them had ever seen anyone move that fast or inflict that much damage in so short a period of time.

Marshall shook off the deputies and the white noise of rage and saw Mary still lying on the floor with Marci ineffectually patting her shoulder to wake her up. He moved to his partner quickly and the secretary scuttled away in fear. Mary was out like a light and he untangled her from the chairs, scooped her up and walked into the conference room to lay her on the table. On the way, he barked instructions to the deputies not attending Swafford to bring him some ice packs and a blanket. He checked her over quickly and was satisfied she hadn't sustained any other injuries besides the blow to the head. Her pupils were normal and he set about trying to coax her back to awareness.

Marshall was now trembling himself from the after effects of the adrenaline and rage, and had a peripheral thought hoping he hadn't critically injured Swafford. They did not need that kind of grief. When he saw Mary take the vicious blow and watched her thrown into the chairs his world whited out and he just reacted. He couldn't remember anything until he was standing away from the downed man between the two deputies restraining him. Now the sight of his unconscious partner was making his knees weak and he wanted her to wake up. He breathed a sigh of relief and tossed up a word of thanks as she began to stir. Placing the blanket under her head and one of the ice packs on her temple where a lump was forming, he called her name to focus her. Deputy Alongi came in to help him if he needed it.

"Mary…Mary. Open your eyes…c'mon, look at me." She was suddenly all movement as she came to and he grabbed her arms and continued to speak to her, "Whoa, cowgirl…relax. You're okay…it's okay."

She woke up trying to defend herself from the punch as it was the last thing she remembered. Hearing Marshall's voice next to her helped her focus and she stopped flailing as she realized she was lying on the conference table with her partner and Alongi looking down at her. Her vision was just…off…and she blinked and squinted as she rubbed her eyes. The ringing in her left ear became apparent as well as the throbbing pain from the blow.

"God damn, son of a bitch!" she hissed as her hand found the ice pack, "I hope to hell you broke both his arms, Marshall." She just assumed Marshall had taken the man down since she would've done the same thing in his position.

Alongi's eyebrows shot up to his hairline as he interjected, "I'm pretty sure he broke more than just that."

Mary peered at Marshall and said warily, "You didn't kill him, did you?" She was dead serious, knowing her partner was perfectly capable of it.

Marshall looked slightly uncomfortable as he replied, "Um, I don't think so."

Mary struggled into a sitting position on the edge of the table with her partner's help. The world tilted and she grabbed his sleeve to keep from falling back over. Marshall kept one hand around her back to steady her. She'd taken a punch to the head before, but didn't remember it making her this dizzy. Suddenly, she realized it must be because of the lingering effects of the ear infection the week before. Swafford had hit her in the same ear that was still stuffy and fluid filled and it really rang her bell. Focusing on Marshall, she noted scratches to his face and arms and the knuckles of his left hand were scraped raw, bleeding and swollen.

"Jesus, Marshall, you need to have that hand looked at. That looks nasty."

As if on cue, one of the paramedics from the arriving ambulance stuck his head through the conference room door and asked if they needed any help. Mary pointed at Marshall as he pointed at her and the poor EMT looked confused. The partners shook their heads in exasperation at each other and both consented to a cursory once over by the paramedics. Marshall's hand was cleaned up and it was suggested he get an x-ray the next day. Mary knew that wouldn't happen. It was determined that she may have a mild concussion and should not be left alone overnight. She hoped Marshall wasn't going to hover.

Swafford's injuries weren't life threatening, just messy. Conveniently, no one at the scene could remember what had happened.

Mary and Marshall stuck around at the sheriff's for about an hour or so as all the officers regaled each other with stories of fist fights, shoot outs and other sometimes embarrassing mishaps as the tension and adrenaline highs dissipated. The partners offered their own stories of fugitive retrieval operations and the sheriff and his deputies developed a new level of respect for the pair. Marshall could tell Mary was running low on reserve and said he was getting tired and wanted to call it a day. Alongi invited them out to his house later for BBQ, and the two Marshals told him they may very well take him up on the offer.

Back in the truck, Mary laid her head on the seat back and said, "Well…that was fun. Let's see…we've made each other cry, almost got eaten by a tornado, got thrown into a mud puddle and now we're nursing wounds from a fist fight. Can I just reiterate how much I hate this fucking state?"

Marshall barked a laugh and teased, "Oh come on, Mare…where's your sense of adventure?"

"I'm pretty sure it just got knocked right out of me" she chuckled and then winced as her head throbbed. "Thanks for saving my ass, by the way. I somehow don't think he would've been satisfied with just one punch."

"Your ass is worth saving." he shrugged, then shuddered a moment later as he remembered seeing her take that punch and the feral look on Swafford's face. "He likely wouldn't have stopped if we hadn't been there. He looked crazy."

She nodded in agreement, lost in thought for a moment, then added, "I wish I could've seen you take him down. That must've been something. The guys couldn't stop talking about it." she was smiling at him, pride welling up. She'd seen Marshall in action before and it was impressive and exciting.

Marshall looked pensive and he said slowly, "I probably would have killed him if they hadn't peeled me off. Just seeing his fist hit your face…and you flying into those chairs…I just reacted and there wasn't an off switch." He had gritted his teeth.

She laid her hand on his arm and said softly, "You did good." Something inside her just glowed a little bit knowing this man would literally kill for her…and a small, barely noticed thought blossomed that wondered what it meant that she would kill for him too.

His eyes were grateful as he smiled and relaxed, and they drove back to the hotel in relieved silence.

*** A little smack down is always fun! The tension builds...stay tuned!! Let me know what you think :) ***


	7. Chapter 7

***** It's a slow ride into new feelings sometimes...but a fun one. Some development. *****

Mary lay on the bed with a cool cloth over her eyes. Marshall had needed a shower after the fight and after having to steady her three times on the way to the room, he had insisted she lay down and stay down while he was in the bathroom. She received a lecture on the dangers of a concussion and rolled her eyes through most of it…of course, rolling her eyes hurt and caused her to wince which only supported his points. She changed into jeans and a t-shirt and he made her promise that she would not get up while he was showering. In reality, she was only happy to oblige as her head still throbbed even after ibuprofen and ice packs. That damn ear hurt again and she realized she should just call her pharmacy in Albuquerque and get them to call her prescription into the Walgreens here. Intent upon that thought, she sat up and looked in the nightstand drawer for the phone book and saw that her phone was over on the dresser across from the bed. She could still hear the shower running and decided Marshall would never know she had gotten up.

Getting up to grab the phone was no problem, it was the turn back to the bed that messed her up. The floor tilted and she landed against Marshall's bed, pulling his bag off onto the floor and dropping her phone too. "Damn it all to hell!" she whispered vehemently, scrambling to get up off the floor and get back onto the bed as she heard the shower turn off. Barely managing to return herself to the position she started in by the time the bathroom door opened, she let out a breath and smiled to herself.

Marshall was drying his hair and noted Mary was still on the bed with the cloth over her eyes. He smiled in satisfaction until he saw his bag on the floor and her cell phone just lying there next to it. His eyes narrowed as he looked at his deceptively relaxed partner, "Did you have visitors?" he asked.

"What? No, why do you think that?"

"Well, I guess my bag and your cell phone just jumped right onto the floor all by themselves then." He was watching her to see what her reaction would be.

"Are they on the floor?" Mary was trying not to smile as she realized what a ridiculous situation this was. She heard him walk over between the two beds and then felt the mattress sink on her left side as he sat on the edge of the bed.

He drawled, "Usually, when someone promises to do something, that means they'll actually do it."

"Well…I'm a little unusual." was all she could think of. Grimacing slightly at the pathetic nature of her reply.

Marshall rubbed the bridge of his nose with his fingers and sighed. "Did you want your phone for a reason?"

Mary was happy he was going to let her off the hook. "Yeah, I was going to call my pharmacy back home to have them call my antibiotic into the pharmacy here."

"Why?"

Feeling even more foolish, Mary reluctantly replied in a mumble, "BecauseIforgotitathome." She felt him just looking at her and was irritated. She held out her left hand for the phone, "Just give it."

Instead of her phone being put into her hand, she felt Marshall's fingers gently rub the bruise on her upper arm. She jumped slightly and said, "Marshall, you really need to stop fussing about that bruise."

He continued to trace it lightly as he said, "I don't like it." Moving his hand to then trace her hairline over her left ear, added, "I'm not going to like this one either." Mary was trying not to let the increase in her breathing show as Marshall's touch was causing her body to heat up in a very non partner-y way. It was the caress coupled with the concern in his voice that ramped up her hormones. She felt confused and tried to diffuse the situation.

"Well, unless you have a magical cure for bruises or can kiss them and make them better, you're just going to have to not like them. I can't make them disappear."

She felt him shift his weight and then her left elbow was supported by his hand while her brain registered his lips touch the bruise in a light, but lingering, kiss. All the air escaped from her lungs and there was no longer confusion over what her hormones were up to. Her arm tingled and she couldn't move.

"Why did you do that?" she whispered.

He had no idea what he was doing but couldn't stop himself. Her skin was so soft and he could hear her breathing speed up when he stroked her arm. There was a heaviness in his belly and an ache in his groin, and when Mary offered the kiss-and-make-it-better option, need prevailed. He loved how she smelled, and he breathed in deeply as he kissed the bruise on her arm. The play of her muscles just under the skin when her arm tensed at his touch only served to arouse him more and he knew his voice was husky when he answered her question.

"I'm kissing it to make it better. Did it work?" Marshall's voice was pitched lower than she had heard it before and it gave her shivers.

Between the adrenaline rush, the heat and a rattled brain, Mary's decision making skills were in the cellar. And when she removed the cloth from her eyes and looked at her partner, the desire in his gaze pushed her right over to reckless.

"It's hard to tell. Maybe you should do it again." Their eyes were locked and he slowly and deliberately placed his left arm across her to rest on the bed and supported himself while he leaned forward and pressed a gentle kiss to her left temple. She closed her eyes as his breath fanned her cheek and he traced two more kisses down to the tender skin right in front of her ear.

"Oh…" was all she could whisper in response. "_Jeeeeeesuuuuuus._" Her mind reeled with the sensations his kisses were causing. She was instantly aroused to aching and her breathing was shallow. No man had offered this before, this slow and tantalizing tasting of her, and she was spellbound.

She smelled so good and each time his lips touched her, his insides clenched in desire. He heard her breathing change and when she whispered a simple word with need and wonder, he had to close his eyes in restraint.

Marshall's whisper was soft and throaty and the warmth of his breath caressed her ear, "I see one more, would you like me to try again?"

"Yes."

He ducked his head and she felt him exhale a breath where her collarbone met her neck. He lightly licked the spot then pressed his lips to it and she softly moaned in delight and frustration. Mary hadn't moved the whole time as she was entranced by the pure sensations of the event. Now, however, she grasped his head with both hands and raised his face so she could see him. His eyes were darkened with need and she saw her partner as a desirable man. "_Wait…wait…wait_" her brain hammered at her and she reigned in her raging want to ask him a question.

"Marshall…are you trying to seduce me?"

His sly grin undid her even more and he replied, "I think we can both agree I've moved beyond trying at this point."

Mary couldn't pull her eyes away from his and her lips curled in a smile of her own at his smart ass response. "I assure you, you should feel quite successful."

Her words rang a bell of rationality and he knew this should not continue. She tasted like heaven and he wanted so much more, but this woman gazing at him with eyes he could fall into and lips that beckoned him was not quite herself, and he would not forgive himself for taking advantage of that…as much as his body was screaming at him in encouragement.

Marshall closed his eyes and took a deep breath before looking at her again with a clearer gaze, "How about we chalk this little adventure up to adrenaline overload?"

She felt herself calm and knew he was right. "And mild heat stroke?" Smiling with him even though disappointment fluttered through her.

His smile got bigger as he continued, "And a poor, abused banana?"

She dissolved into giggles at that and released him. He sat up and gently brushed the hair away from her face as he laughed with her.

"I thought poor Tucker was going to aspirate on his own drool. I almost felt a little bad about that." Mary continued to chuckle as she remembered the expression on the young deputy's face.

Marshall nodded in agreement and added, "Alongi knew exactly what you were up to and was trying not to laugh the whole time. I think he thoroughly enjoyed the distraction."

"Shit…who thought that dessert was a good idea?" wondered Mary. She was feeling more normal again and relieved she and her partner had come to their senses. The ramifications of that path, both emotional and professional, were not something she wanted to think about. She felt Marshall looking at her and saw his contemplative gaze. "You okay?" she asked.

"Are we good?" he wondered.

She smiled, "Never better. Now give me my phone so I can get back to disobeying the rules."

He snorted and stood, taking her phone with him. "I'll call Eleanor and have her set it up. You, young lady, are going to just rest for a while…as am I. Let's see how we feel in a couple hours and maybe go get some delicious Kansas BBQ later?"

Mary crossed her arms over her chest and glared at him, "You know I don't rest well."

Marshall brought her a freshly wet and cool cloth and drawled, "Give it a try…for me." She rolled her eyes and covered them with the washcloth and was asleep ten minutes later. Marshall passed Mary's request onto Eleanor and leaned back into his bed, following Mary into slumber a short time later.

*******

Tony Alongi's house was a rambling ranch style on ten acres with a small pond nestled in a little tree filled meadow out back. He and his wife, Betsy, had three Border collies and ten year old twin boys which put the energy level at their house on obnoxious. The kitchen was crowded with people, but all were gradually moving out onto the backyard patio as the weather cooled with the setting sun. The Alongis had hosted a monthly Friday night BBQ as long as anyone could remember, weather be damned and no RSVP needed. The winter parties were held inside by the fireplace or in the basement playing pool while the activities during the warmer months involved fishing in the pond and lounging on the patio. It was one of the perks of living in a small town, Betsy explained to Mary.

The Marshals woke fairly refreshed earlier and their growling stomachs decided their fate. Mary's vertigo had lessened greatly, and unless she made any sudden changes in direction, felt steady on her feet. She took some more ibuprofen and hoped it didn't eat a hole through her stomach. Marshall's hand was throbbing but functional, and he determined it was only bruised, not broken. Mary still suggested he get it x-rayed and he shot her a look that had her holding her hands in front of her in surrender.

"See how you are?" she said.

They knew some of the folks at the BBQ from the sheriff's office and were slightly surprised to learn that everyone knew who they were and why they were here.

"It's a small town, Marshall, word travels fast when newcomers arrive. Especially newcomers with badges." Tony explained when Marshall expressed mild alarm, "Gossip is the second most popular activity around here after drinking. I'm glad you two came tonight because it'll put a few of the more ridiculous rumors to rest."

"What kind of rumors?" queried the tall man interestedly.

Tony chuckled as he listed them, "That you're CIA and looking for terrorist cells, that you're FBI and trying to cover up an alien abduction, then there's the witness protection angle and you're hiding some people involved in this, and finally that you're scouts for the secret service and looking to recruit from the local force."

Marshall barely avoided choking on his beer and covered well, "I see what you mean…if only my life was that exciting. Instead, I get to 'observe' and beat up bullies. That was fun." He and Tony clinked their glasses together in a toast.

The deputy gave him a sly look and said, "One of those was true, and I can guess which one, so let's say this conversation never happened."

Marshall tilted his head in thanks as he changed the topic of conversation with the addition of two new men to the group.

On the other side of the yard, Mary sat with Betsy and one other woman while retelling the stories of her fights with Swafford. The two local women were delighted with the deputy's fate as he had been a thorn in both his poor wife's and other's sides for too long.

Betsy shook her head as Mary recounted the fight at the office and announced, "That's it. I'm taking Carla and the kids away from that house and getting her on a new path. She's been waiting for a good opportunity to make a break for it and this is perfect. He'll be in the hospital for a while and they can be long gone by the time he gets home."

"How long has he been beating her?" asked Mary with a dark look. Men who abused their loved ones held a special place of disgust in her mind.

"Since they started dating in high school." said the third woman, "Everyone knew it was going on, but Carla would never press charges or let anyone help. Typical abusive relationship I suppose. Her resolve was wearing very thin lately, though. I think he started hitting the oldest boy…he's six."

The three of them wished Swafford to all levels of hell for a few minutes more before the third woman changed the topic.

"Why did you decide to become a Marshal?" she asked Mary.

"It was either go into law enforcement or go to jail. To make a long story short, the clothes are nicer and I get to carry the gun and handcuffs instead of having them used on me." Mary smiled to soften the response and the women laughed.

"I hear your partner is a force to be reckoned with," began Betsy, "Tony said he just about ripped John's head off before they got him under control."

Mary reflexively looked over to locate Marshall and he turned his head to catch her eye at the same time, raising his bottle in salute before going back to his conversation. Their unspoken communication synching up once again.

"He's saved my life more than once…and I his. It's a strong partnership and it amazingly survives the worst of us." she was thinking about their fight earlier in the week. "He's a total geek and completely annoying most of the time, but he's brilliant and quick and steady on the trigger so I keep him around."

Betsy's friend leaned in to softly say, "He's cute too…any benefits?" she had a look of anticipation on her face.

Mary almost spit out her beer (Marshall wouldn't let her have a beer but she switched out her soda as soon as he wasn't looking) as the thoughts of the earlier episode in the hotel room sprang to mind. Betsy handed her a napkin and she caught her breath before answering, "As much fun as I'm sure it would be to bang the shit out of him, I've managed to restrain myself thus far."

"Who are you banging the shit out of now, Mare? We talked about how that would look to the neighbors." Marshall had come up behind her without her knowledge and jumped into the conversation to stir the pot. He had an idea the women were hounding her about their relationship just as he had taken a ribbing from the men.

Mary jumped and turned to glare at him while the two other women's eyes got wide and they suppressed laughter.

"Jesus, numbnuts, don't you knock?" she was a bit flustered and covered with her usual crassness.

"You know I can read, right?" Marshall said with a raised eyebrow.

"What the hell are you talking about?" Mary felt like she had completely missed his train of thought.

Marshall took her beer and replaced it with yet another can of soda and a look that dared her to protest.

"No alcohol with a concussion. Now be good because I don't want to deal with you puking all over later." He held the beer out of her reach as she made a grab for it.

"Damn it, Marshall, there's such a thing as hovering and you're doing it. I can handle myself…go away."

"You'll change your tune when you're staggering around town trying to remember your own name later. Don't think I'll come and get you then." He was teasing her.

"Yes you will, idiot, because I'd make your life miserable if you didn't." Mary shot back in amusement.

He narrowed his eyes and pondered, "And that would be different than my life now how…?"

"Asshole." crossing her arms over her chest, she glared at him.

Marshall smiled smugly, raised his bottle to the two other women and said, "Ladies," as he walked back to the BBQ pit.

Betsy's friend laughed harder and got up to excuse herself to the restroom. Mary was pouting and Betsy said, "He cares for you deeply, you know."

Mary looked at her suspiciously, "Well, we've been partners for about four years now. You have to develop a friendship or it's not going to work out and somebody will end up dead."

Betsy studied the blonde woman sitting across from her and offered a suggestion, "You may want to look a little more closely sometime. I think you'll be surprised by what you see."

The conversation was ended at that point as Tony and another friend joined them. Mary was left wondering about Betsy's statement and wasn't sure she really wanted to think about it.

The BBQ was delicious and Mary found that she had enjoyed the evening even though social gatherings weren't her thing. She caught herself looking for her partner more often than she wanted to and wasn't surprised when he again thwarted her attempt to surreptitiously snag another beer. Betsy's words still swirled around in her head and she beat them down with a mental stick.

There was no doubt she and Marshall cared deeply for one another, especially after the heart wrenching scene the other night and his statements to her this morning in the room. It was starting to get a bit confusing though, and it made her angry and restless. Her reactions lately to his touch and the desire she had seen in his eyes today didn't fit into their comfortable relationship and she supposed she was going to have to make some sort of decision as to what to do with that. Mary didn't like change, and especially change in her personal life. Take that change and attach the possibility of destroying a part of her life that she couldn't live without and she would throw up wall after wall of resistance.

"_You may want to look a little more closely sometime…_" the words echoed in her head as she stared off into the stars. He had never let her down, never let her fall. And when she thought he was going to walk away she crumbled. Mary reluctantly let herself remember how she felt after he was shot in the desert. The agony of potential loss and the desperation she corralled into action to save him any way possible. She wanted to take his pain and had prayed for the first time in a very long time. Skip to the terror of that basement and the single, ever present thought in her mind… "_Marshall will find me._" How seeing him come down those stairs had banished the numbness from her limbs and ache in her gut and replaced them with a warmth that was hard to describe, but she knew there was a word for it. A word she wasn't going to admit to herself just yet because it scared her. This was why Mary didn't like to think too hard about things. Life was easier and less painful when stones weren't overturned.

She heard him approach, but didn't look at him.

"You've been staring off into the dark for about twenty minutes now. Are you okay?" Marshall asked quietly, sensing her thoughts were melancholy.

"Mmmhmm," she murmured, "Just thinking a few things through." She could smell his aftershave and it comforted her.

A few more minutes passed before he spoke again, "I think it's my turn to ask what's going through that head of yours. You look…sad."

She unconsciously shook her head slightly, "No…not sad." Another pause, then she continued, "Do you ever wonder what it would be like to be an astronaut and just float in space? I imagine it must be wonderous…the silence…the feeling of nothing weighing on you and the whole world just laid out underneath you…waiting. Waiting for you to make a decision, because that decision will determine everything that happens after that. I think that moment in time could seem to last forever."

Marshall stared at her in fascination as he felt tears actually prick the corners of his eyes. She had just painted a picture of such longing that he wanted to gather her into his arms and hold her for a very long time. Somehow, he had a feeling he knew what was preoccupying her mind and was careful to tread very gently.

"But it won't last forever, because the world continues to turn, and the sun will eventually rise and show you what you need to see." His quiet response enveloped her.

She looked at him then and knew what those first few rays of sunlight would reveal. Their gazes locked and they both knew something had changed, but an unspoken plea was exchanged to explore it slowly and carefully.

She smiled tiredly and patted him on the chest, "Take me home, Rico, I'm whipped."

"Your wish is my command." He grinned with a tilt of his head and placed his hand on the small of her back to guide her through goodbyes.

***** so close... :) This wasn't my favorite chapter, hope you liked it anyway!! please send my addiction of choice: REVIEWS! *****


	8. Chapter 8

***** Just when we thought it was simple. A little more heat! *****

Marshall's phone rang at four in the morning and he was instantly awake as he grabbed the cell. He heard Mary mumble and roll over and looked at the caller ID…Stan.

"Yeah, Stan."

"Manny Sterling boarded a plane for Oklahoma City two hours ago. Did you know he was leaving town?"

Marshall's stomach dropped and he was sitting up while snapping, "What?!" He saw his partner sit up and look at him with that exclamation.

"I take it that's a 'no'. Well, you and the blonde wonder better get your asses to Oklahoma asap. I'll call their office to see if we can get some eyes at the airport to track him until you two can retrieve him. You're pretty done there anyway, right?" Stan wasn't any happier with this development than Marshall was. It meant his two Inspectors were out of the office longer than expected.

"Shit. Yeah, we've got nothing more here since we already pulled the feds' data. We'll head out as soon as we put ourselves together." Marshall was already headed to the bathroom as he said goodbye to Stan and tossed his cell phone on the dresser.

"What's going on?" asked Mary.

"Sterling skipped town and is headed to Oklahoma City. Saddle up!"

"Seriously…this four a.m. crap is getting old." she grumbled as she crawled out of bed and began to put her things together. "I'm duct taping all your witnesses to their fucking beds when we get back. They can misbehave during normal working hours."

Marshall snarked, "Cry me a river." as he disappeared into the bathroom, in no better humor than she.

They managed to not bump into each other too much as they groggily packed up, dressed and cleaned up to leave on the seven hour drive to Oklahoma City. Checking out by five, they bickered briefly about who would drive first. Marshall reluctantly conceded to Mary as she was just cranky and promised him she'd let him know right away if her head started bothering her. Mary had tired of being treated like and invalid and knew she'd be just fine so long as there was coffee to be had soon. Stopping at the 24 hour mart for gas, coffee and road food, they were headed out of town by 5:30am.

"Go back to sleep for an hour or two, nitwit." Mary addressed her tired partner with irritation, "I'm perfectly fine and you're pissing me off by watching me."

Marshall knew there would be no way he could sleep right now. Not only was he still concerned for Mary, but the sun was coming up and his mind was busy with figuring out why Manny had the hots for Oklahoma City all of a sudden.

"I'm seriously not sleepy right now, Mare. I want to know why the hell Manny is running."

"And whether he's running from…or to…something or someone." she added. Mary wasn't completely familiar with Marshall's witness, but the general story was the same as so many others and she could at least help throw scenarios out there for musings sake.

They tossed ideas around and Marshall filled her in on background details that helped congeal the story. Along with the slivers of information they had been fed from the DEA about the Quinter crime, the partners had put together a few plausible scenarios within an hour and a half. Marshall spent the next forty five minutes on the phone to various contacts and sources in order to get the ball rolling on some data searches while Mary updated Stan and Eleanor so they would be able to run with information coming into the office. She also called the Quinter Sheriff's office to let them know they had to leave town and to call if the deputies felt there was anything the Marshals should be updated on.

A late breakfast was consumed quickly in Wichita with a bathroom break and driver switch included. Stan had put Marshall in touch with the WITSEC team in Oklahoma City tracking Manny and he found out the man was staying in a third rate dive in a decidedly seedy area of town. They hadn't reported seeing Sterling make any contact with anyone yet, and the geek squad in Albuquerque continued to monitor his cell number for incoming and outgoing calls.

Mary could see Marshall's jaw tighten occasionally as he drove towards their goal. She knew he was remembering another witness who had run unexpectedly…Norman. She still felt the hurt for her partner over that cluster fuck. It's sometimes impossible to stop a human being focused on their own self destruction.

He felt her studying him and said, "Don't worry, I'm not going to go crazy about this." He knew where her mind had gone since his had been there since the phone call this morning. Manny was not Norman in so many ways, but his gut was tight all the same. He did not want to lose two witnesses in one year…his fault or not.

"I don't think you're going to go crazy, but I do worry you're going to beat yourself up over something you had no control over."

"It's just that you think you get through to them, you know. That they finally understand the fragility of their position and can let the program work. I feel like a kindergarten teacher sometimes, Mare…I'm sure you do too…saying things a thousand times then watching as they just go right back to doing it." Marshall blew out a breath in frustration and shook his head.

She was nodding her head in agreement. "Unfortunately, too many come into the program with poor decision making skills permanently in place. We can't fix that. We also can't fix stupid, and that genetic trait seems to be all too common."

Marshall was silent for a while, then suddenly asked, "Do you think we'll burn out, Mare? Become so jaded and hardened that we can't even care anymore?"

Mary stared at him as she wandered through her thoughts. She knew that was a fear of his…that he would someday wake up and not want to go to work, not care about his witnesses or the job. When you're a fourth generation Marshal you live the job, and what would you do without it? It's what he's always done, and Mary knew it's what he would always do. Nothing else would suit this man sitting next to her, his profile angular and strong as he studied traffic the same way he studied anything else. Intense. Facing down danger, saving those who have no one else to speak for them, trying to keep some order in his world…her world. Her Gunslinger. She unknowingly smiled as she envisioned him in a High Noon situation with the music of The Good, The Bad and The Ugly echoing in the background.

"You'll no more burn out than one of those damn trick candles, Marshall. I've seen you sputter and send out a few puffs of smoke, but you always spark right back into a flame again." Mary thought it was a pretty good analogy.

"So, I'm a party favor?" he grinned at her with amusement in his eyes. He had watched her think out of the corner of his eye and couldn't help feel warmed by the look of pride on her face as she mulled over his question a few minutes ago.

"At least I didn't compare you to one of the edible kinds."

"Hmmm…so instead of getting nibbled on, I'd get blown?" Marshall tossed that back to see what she'd do with it.

His partner snorted and barked out a laugh, then punched him on the arm. "God…you've got one dirty ass mind underneath all that polish, don't ya, Cowboy?"

"Someone's got to keep up with you, Mistress Banana." he drawled.

They laughed together and the mood was thankfully lightened for a while.

They hit the Oklahoma City limits soon after lunch and made a beeline for Manny's motel. The plan was to snatch back their witness before he could contact anyone in the city and hightail it back to Albuquerque. More than likely, Manny would have to be relocated again, but until then he was still Marshall's problem.

They sat in the SUV about a block away from the motel and surveyed the neighborhood. It was a typical run down, high unemployment area with listless men gathered randomly in front of check cashing store fronts, truant teenagers cruising in jack-upped cars and the occasional obvious prostitute. These kinds of neighborhoods depressed Marshall, and brought back too many crappy memories for Mary.

"Amazing," began Mary, "no matter what city you're in, these places always look just like Jersey."

Marshall knew she was muttering to herself and didn't expect any sort of dialogue. Every time he tried to imagine her as a young girl navigating these types of streets it always made him cringe.

"You know, I had a friend who almost convinced me to start turning tricks when we were fourteen." Mary didn't know why that jumped out of her mouth. It wasn't a story she told to anyone, and she was unaware that she was testing him. Her subconscious mind making her hand him a piece of dark and ugly information to see what he would do with it.

His gaze snapped over to her and she was staring out the window at Manny's motel. He had a feeling this was something she hadn't talked about in a long time…being offered to him for some reason.

"What changed your mind?" he asked.

"The first time we went out it went sideways. She got the shit beat out of her and I…well, I found out there were some things even I wouldn't do. Didn't seem like such a good idea after that." she chuckled sadly, "We got evicted again about a week later and I never saw her again. I wonder what happened to her?" Mary was lost in thought again.

He wanted to touch her…run his hand down her hair or hold her hand…something to anchor her back to him. Mary didn't like to fumble around in her past, and if she lost her footing it took too long to regain the upper ground. He didn't like to see her like that as it was painful for both of them. Reaching out, he squeezed her shoulder.

"You got lucky."

Her eyes met his and she saw what he offered, squeezed his hand briefly with her own and smiled, "Yeah." He passed.

Looking back out the window, she suddenly asked, "Ready to go get that douchebag?"

Marshall grunted agreement, started the car and they drove the block to the parking lot. The scene looked clear, but they were both on high alert anyway. Manny had picked this place for a reason, and that reason may be arriving any minute or already be here. When they relieved the local Marshals upon their arrival, the men had not seen anyone but Manny come and go, but Mary and Marshall were too good to let themselves be complacent.

They stood to the sides of the motel door as Marshall knocked. After a moment, a voice from inside asked who was there.

"Open the door, Manny, or I'll kick it down." called Marshall in a stern voice.

There was a moment of silence, then the pair heard the lock turn and the door cracked open. Marshall pushed in quickly, followed by Mary and she resecured the lock behind her.

"Did you decide the rules didn't apply to you today, Manny? What kind of stunt is this?" Marshall was towering over his witness with a glare.

"Fuck, Marshall, how'd you find me?" Sterling was flustered and scared.

"If we can hide you, we can find you, asswipe." Mary added her thoughts while standing sentinel at the window after checking the motel room for any other guests.

Marshall shoved Manny into a chair, "Sit down and start talking. Make it interesting and make it quick because we have a long drive home."

Manny knew he had screwed up big time. He had always been intimidated by Marshall, and now with the angry man looming over him and Mary standing on the other side of the room with her weapon drawn, the witness felt trapped and afraid. These people were serious and he knew his story wasn't going to make them happy.

"They sent me pictures! They knew where I was, Marshall…what was I supposed to do?" pleaded the seated man.

"Contacting me would've been the first choice." drawled Marshall, "What pictures are you talking about?"

Manny looked slightly ill as he replied, "The pictures of Gabe and his family. Dead and burned. God..it was awful. You don't know what they did to them!"

"We're aware, Manny. Why didn't you call me as soon as you got the pictures? That should've been the first thing you thought of." Marshall's teeth were clenched as he pondered the pure stupidity of the man sitting in front of him.

"They said I couldn't tell anyone…especially you or Mary. They knew about you…they said they'd hurt you!" the witness was almost in tears now.

Mary and Marshall shared a concerned glance at Manny's words and Mary asked, "What do you mean, they knew about us? They knew about the program? Who did you tell about it, asshole? How did they trace you to Albuquerque?" she was mad and worried now.

He was sobbing now and the story sputtered out, "I love her…you don't understand. She was so sad when I left and I just couldn't let her think I was dead. Please…she's so wonderful. I just told her I had new friends in Albuquerque…that's it…I swear!" looking at the Marshals, Manny knew they were still unconvinced and getting angrier. He tried to explain some more.

"You don't understand how she loves me…I just tell her things, you know? I don't like to hear her cry when I try to keep secrets. They must've been listening on the line or something…I don't know!" he was desperately trying to convince them.

"What a stupid prick! They weren't listening on the line…your girlfriend told them everything. She's with them, you fuckwit!" Mary sneered unbelievingly at the poor man in the chair.

Marshall held up a hand towards her to calm her down and she hissed out a breath as she kept watch on the parking lot. If Marshall wasn't standing right there she was sure she'd plug the witness in the kneecaps.

"What, exactly, did you tell her about us, Manny?" Marshall's voice was low and calm. He needed Manny to be perfectly honest, and Mary's methods would only cause him to withdraw and clam up.

"I swear, Marshall, I only told her your first names and that you were U.S. Marshals protecting me…keeping me safe. I didn't say I was in Witness Protection. I told her I had to stay in Albuquerque for a while and lay low. I never said I was testifying or anything…you have to believe me!" Manny was pleading.

Marshall had closed his eyes and was rubbing his forehead as he tried to remain calm. Not only had his idiot witness compromised his own safety, he'd compromised his and Mary's identity and cover to the people hunting him. There was absolutely no way they would be able to keep him as a witness and the only thing they could do now was damage control while WITSEC arranged something new. He took a deep, calming breath.

"Manny, why did they send you the pictures? What do they want?"

"They want me to do a run…a big run. If I do it, they said I'll be able to be with Serena and they'll buy us a ticket to live wherever we want in the world. We just have to leave right after the run. That's all."

Mary piped in again, still seething, "So your promise to the DEA just goes out the window? All for a piece of ass…that's just fucking beautiful. Let me shoot him, Marshall…he's not worth anything to us anymore."

She must've looked especially threatening because Manny jumped up to stand behind Marshall while whining, "Don't let her near me!" Marshall reached around and tossed the man back into the chair while shooting Mary a look that said, "_Quit_." She went back to her watch with a "hmph".

"Let me see the pictures." demanded Marshall.

Manny scrambled over to his suitcase and pulled out an envelope to hand to Marshall. The tall man almost worried about evidence, but figured it had been handled too much already for any useful forensics to remain. Opening the package, he slid the 8x10's out onto the bed and gently waded through them.

Of the twelve photos, eight were obviously taken shortly after the murders at the Quinter ranch. Gruesome, but nothing in them hinted at the photographer or the perpetrators. Two were of Manny himself as he went through his everyday life, and both had targets drawn over his face or heart. The last two gave Marshall chills and he seriously considered letting Mary shoot his witness. One photo was taken of himself leaning against the SUV with a coffee in one hand and his cell phone in the other. He was obviously taking a call and there was a bullseye drawn onto his forehead. The last picture was of Mary standing outside of the courthouse talking to another cop. She was in mid gesture and there was an identical bullseye drawn over her chest. Marshall raised his eyes to look at his partner and found her staring at him with the same thought. This had become personal.

Putting the pictures back in the envelope, he instructed Manny to pack up his stuff because they were leaving. The young man started to protest and Marshall looked at him with such menace that he quickly doubled his efforts.

From the window, Mary said, "Manny, when was all this supposed to happen here?"

Manny looked up and replied, "They were supposed to meet me here tomorrow morning at 7. Until then I wasn't supposed to leave."

Marshall saw his partner tense up as she asked, "So, you weren't expecting visitors now? Because we have company." She was moving toward the door and continued with orders, "Marshall, get Manny into the bathroom. I'll lure them in here and we'll pin them down. They're both carrying."

Marshall would rather take the door position, but had to protect his witness first…even if he'd rather toss him into the line of fire instead. After swiftly getting Manny into the bathtub, he moved to stand in the doorway where he could lean out and cover Mary easily. He checked with his partner visually and she put her eye to the peephole to assess the situation outside.

It took only a second, but Mary immediately knew there would be no playing the situation carefully or quietly. The men outside were bringing up the semiautomatics and she leaped back from the door to squeeze herself into the eight inch space between the door jamb and the wall, hoping to God they would concentrate on the door and the window with their fire.

"Get down!" she yelled at Marshall as the first rounds crashed into the room.

He dropped to a prone position and covered his head while yelling at Manny to do the same. His heart was pounding not only due to the bullets, but because he knew Mary was standing right next to that door. He could not see her from his position because of the bed in his line of sight and had no way to communicate. The noise was tremendous and there was plaster, wood and cloth flying through the air as the spray continued. Marshall flinched as a piece of something took a bite out of his shoulder blade and tried to press himself further into the floor.

She was praying. Squeezed into that tiny space with her forearms covering her face while gripping her Glock, the noise was awful and she could feel the wall shaking from the bullets hitting the door and crashing through the window. Glass and wood were everywhere and she felt the stings and bites caused as they flew by her and at her. It seemed to go on forever, but suddenly there was silence as the guns emptied. Training and heightened reflexes allowed her to react in a second and she dove and rolled to beneath the now glassless window, rose into a crouch and targeted the two men standing outside the room. Neither had time to register her presence before she emptied her weapon into both of them, sparing neither.

Marshall was levering into a crouch as soon as the gunfire ceased and heard the fire from his partner's Glock as his head cleared the bed. He saw her in a kneeling stance with her weapon aimed outside the window and she was frozen there for a moment after her bullets were gone. His knees were weak with relief at the sight of her, and as she lowered her gun and leaned against the wall, he looked quickly behind him to see Manny alive in the tub then moved across the room to join her. The two men on the balcony were not getting up any time soon, if at all, and Marshall took the time to check Mary.

She was pale and breathing fast and her eyes locked with his as she whispered, "Did I get them?"

"You got them." He assured her. Her hands and forearms had a myriad of small nicks and cuts from the flying debris, and her hair was full of wood splinters. Other than that, she seemed unharmed but shaken up.

"Are you okay? Is Manny okay?" she asked in rapid fire as she stood, holstered her weapon and grabbed his forearms. She was shaking with the aftermath of adrenaline and fear and needed to feel him with her own hands to reassure herself he was still alive.

Marshall hesitated for only a moment before holstering his own gun and reaching out to pull her into his arms. His right arm circled her waist while the left cradled her head and held her against his chest. She reciprocated by gripping him tightly and they trembled against each other for a short time.

"You're crazy, you know that?" he muttered into her hair.

"Yeah…but you're alive so it's all good." she murmured back.

They could hear sirens approaching and he pulled back to smile at her. Her eyes met his with heat and she reached up to wrap her arms around his neck, pulled him down slightly to her and pressed her lips to his with fire and purpose. He tightened his arms to press her against him and moaned as he opened his mouth slightly to invite her to deepen the kiss. Mary came in hot and as her tongue caressed his lips and then met with his, he felt tendrils of flame lick at every molecule of his being. He tasted her, then tasted her again because he couldn't get enough. Want pounded through his veins and he knew he would have to have this woman soon or die with need.

She knew what she was doing when she initiated the kiss, but could never have imagined the chaos that raged through her body when her lips met his. Instantly aching, she gasped as he pressed her to him and his mouth moved under hers to coax her response. She needed more and teased and tasted his mouth as he matched her fire. His kiss made her feel like molten silver…Mary was inflamed and wanted to burn alive.

They both heard the sirens pull into the parking lot and broke the kiss with mutual moans. Mary pulled away and placed one hand on his chest to steady herself and create distance between them. He ran his hands through his hair and tried to slow his breathing and steady his own legs.

She chuckled as she raised her eyes to look at him again, "We're having some interesting issues with adrenaline overload."

He grinned in response and agreed, "Yes…but we can't blame heat stroke or head wounds this time."

His partner got an evil grin on her face. "I can assure you though…I was planning on seriously abusing your banana."

Marshall's eyes widened slightly before he burst out laughing and Mary joined in. Manny finally had the balls to drag himself out of the bathtub to see what was so funny.

***** Smokin'! I love it when they're in a shoot out...so fun, and now more little wounds to kiss and make better ;) Let me know your thoughts! *****


	9. Chapter 9

***** I'm going to have to change the rating by tomorrow morning! Shirtless Marshall is impossible to resist, so look for me in the M's!! *****

It took two hours to clear up the mess of Manny's motel room and by the time Mary, Marshall and their witness drove away, the partners were shaky with hunger and exhaustion. Thankfully, the Oklahoma City WITSEC office helped them hurdle the many barriers thrown up by OCPD and neither of them had to journey to the local station for statements or proof of ID. Manny was questioned by the lead detective under the watchful eye of Marshall and was too stupid to tell a different story. The only good thing about Marshall's witness swimming in the shallow end of the gene pool is that he was hard pressed to drown himself.

Mary insisted the paramedics at the scene address Marshall's back even after his repeated protestations. She had spotted the blood soaked shirt soon after the police arrived and had a moment of panic before realizing he was way too active for it to be a serious wound. The EMTs found a nice gash under the fabric and dressed it with the determination no stitches were needed. Mary only had superficial cuts and scrapes and satisfied herself with a good hand washing in the bathroom. She noticed her hands were shaking and took a moment to herself to rest her head against the wall and breathe.

She had killed two men. There was no finesse when she fired…kill shots were required and each man took one bullet to the head and multiple shots to the chest. A very small part of her was satisfied with her precision, but the guilt always managed to overwhelm her at some point. The witness was safe, her partner was safe and she was still alive. This dark spot on her psyche would slowly fade to a barely noticed smudge over time as the rest them eventually did. They didn't tell you about this when you signed up for the job, didn't tell you what it was like to extinguish a life…even one hell bent on ending your own. Maybe this was why she was one of the good guys, because it bothered her, and she decided to be thankful for the reminder of her still present conscience.

"Mare?" Marshall's voice intruded on her thoughts.

She raised her eyes to meet his in the mirror and he knew that haunted look. Had seen it in his own eyes too many times and wouldn't let her slide away.

"You did good." He softly praised her while urging her to accept it with his gaze.

Mary smiled tightly and nodded once. "I'll be there in a few, Marshall."

He nodded back and ducked out to let her finish her reverie, not knowing the flood of relief his simple words had given his partner. Coming from anyone else, she would have filed it away as platitude, but she knew those three words were more than they seemed coming from him. He had thanked her for his life and pledged his back to her with one breath, and that's all that mattered right now. She would deal with the muck of self retribution later. Pushing upright, she walked back out to join the chaos.

Mary could tell Marshall was still jacked up and pissed at his witness by the way he manhandled Manny into the SUV and she had to grin. She'd been on the receiving end of that action before. Her partner tossed him in the back seat and as soon as all were buckled they left the scene with a sigh of relief.

"Where are we going?" asked Manny from the back seat.

"None of your fucking business." snapped Mary, "Just sit there and keep your mouth shut."

Manny slumped back into his seat obediently, not wanting Mary's ire directed at him.

The debriefing with Stan earlier had been painful, consisting of a lot of grimacing on Marshall's part as he held the phone slightly away from his ear for most of the conversation. It basically came down to damage control, as they knew it would. Manny would be relocated, but until they had a place and time, the Albuquerque team had to hang on to him. Not wanting to take any chances, Marshall left Manny's cell phone with the Oklahoma Marshals so they could follow up on any calls or messages through their office, and copies were made of the pictures while the originals were FedEx'ed to Stan. They wouldn't be lucky enough for the people responsible for this fiasco to think Manny was actually dead, so covering their asses was the next best choice.

Marshall drove randomly for forty five minutes with the sole intention of losing any tail they may have picked up at the motel. After that, he finally headed to their destination; a non-descript hotel in a non-descript suburb. Mary ordered pizza from her room while the men settled into the adjoining quarters. The musical showers commenced as Mary and Marshall made sure one of them was always watching the witness, and they all got a chance to clean up as the pizza arrived. Giving Marshall and Manny some time to discuss the game plan, Mary headed to her room for some quiet. Amazingly enough, she caught herself watching the Weather Channel when her partner appeared in her doorway.

"Ah…yet another victim drawn to the dark side." he drawled, noticing her choice of viewing.

"Haha…I just don't want to be tornado bait again. Did you know Oklahoma City is smack dab in the middle of Tornado Alley?" "_Oh my God,_" she thought in shocking disgust, "_I just sounded like Marshall._" She figured it was probably one of the signs of the Apocalypse and they'd all be dead by morning.

He smiled in triumph, thinking her thoughts, and she threw a pillow at him. Snagging it in mid-air, he fired it back and hit her upside the head. She gave him a dirty look.

"Did you want something, or…why are you half-dressed?" Mary suddenly realized he was shirtless, carrying the garment in his hand instead. She also realized she was very aware of the amount of skin on display. Marshall usually dressed in the bathroom and she rarely saw him without at least a tank top. He claimed it was respectable to be dressed in the presence of others, but Mary just figured he was a prude.

"I can't reach that damn cut and wondered if you'd slap a bandaid on it for me. I don't want to get blood on my shirts. Manny's asleep, so this would be a good time." He had the dressing material in his hand and held it out for her.

Mary got up and took the dressings while saying, "Well, come over here into the light, nitwit. I can't bandage you by Braille." She led him over closer to the bathroom where the hall light was.

Turning him around, Mary readied the dressing then saw the cut had bled a bit and she needed a washcloth to dab some blood away. Grabbing one and wetting it slightly, she went back around her partner to clean him up.

"Be gentle." He mock whined and she chuckled.

"You're such a girl."

Mary blamed the whiff of aftershave. After wiping away the smear of blood, she placed the dressing on and smoothed the tape with her fingers. He shivered and she was caught by the play of his muscles and the slight scent of him. Her hands remained in contact on either side of the wound and she studied his back. Broad shoulders tapered to a narrow waist and he had two absolutely perfect dimples over his hipbones. She wanted to dip her tongue into them, and her body tightened up with anticipation at that thought. He was all lean muscle, and any movement caused them to shift and flow beneath his skin…she was entranced.

Flattening her hands so her palms rested on either side of the small dressing, she leaned forward and breathed deeply of him then pressed her lips to the skin right above the bandage. She knew exactly what she was doing and gently trailed her lips to the side and down until she had placed four soft kisses on his back…one on each side of his cut. He tasted like soap and man.

Marshall was barely staying in his own skin. It wasn't until her fingers smoothed the bandage that his brain registered her heat on his back and the slightly vulnerable position he was in. When her hands stalled and he heard her breathing deepen, he knew all was lost. Her palms pressed into his back were like pools of fire and he let out a sharp breath as his body responded, only to flare again when her lips touched his skin. "_Oh dear God._" Was his silent plea…prayer…thanks…he didn't know. She continued to torture him with kisses and he finally ground out a single word.

"Mary."

His voice had dropped that octave again and her groin ached with the sensual sound of her name.

As her hands began to slowly explore his back, she answered huskily, "It's my turn to kiss it and make it better, Marshall."

Mary slowly traced the muscles on his back as he shuddered beneath her hands. She followed her touch with slow kisses and traced some of the more fascinating muscles with her tongue, tasting him as her blood pounded in her ears. Marshall leaned forward heavily and placed his palms on the wall in front of him as he occasionally groaned with her touch, each time the sound making her want more.

The edges of his vision were fuzzy and he closed his eyes against the vertigo. Her lips were maddening and her tongue was madness. No one had ever drove him this hot, this fast before. He could not even trust his legs to remain locked at this point as the woman standing behind him slowly devoured him taste by taste. She shifted slightly and pressed her hips against his rear as her hands traveled around his ribcage to rest over his navel. Marshall's head fell back in desperation as he whispered, "Oh, Jesus, Mary…I'm burning up."

"Mmmm…" she hummed against his back and the vibration showered liquid drops of heat into his core. "I could taste you all night." She let her hands wander over the solid muscles of his chest as she continued to run her lips over his back. He jerked against her and grunted "shit" as she ran her fingernails lightly over his flat nipples. The husky expletive made her groan and she pressed her hips into him in response.

He could take no more as her hips ground into him. He grabbed both her wrists with crossed arms and swiftly turned and ducked under his own arms to face her. Before she could react, he spun her so her back was against the wall and pinned her wrists over her head as he pressed her into the wall with his hips. Her eyes were nearly black with desire and her lips parted as she exclaimed, "Marshall!"

"You're playing with fire, Mary." he growled.

"I'm not playing." she whispered, "Show me how you burn."

Mary's world narrowed down to want and need as Marshall spun her against that wall and pressed his body against hers. Just looking into his eyes almost sent her over the edge, and the feel of his arousal nestled against her belly had her straining to feel more and his name fell from her lips involuntarily. She wanted this man with more certainty than she had ever wanted anything in her life. She sensed that this was something she had always been missing and wasn't going to let it get away. She wanted to dance in his flame.

Marshall was determined to drive her as mad as she drove him and continued to hold her wrists as he dropped his head to tease her lips, lightly kissing the corners of her mouth and running his tongue along her bottom lip. He would pull back slightly whenever she tried to increase the contact and she moaned in frustration. She didn't try to pull away from his hands with any concerted effort and he continued to restrain the rest of her body with his hips. He switched control of her wrists to one hand and let the other slowly slide down her arm as he continued to nibble on her mouth until his hand slowly wound its way into her hair, securing her head. Tilting her head back, he began a slow tasting of her jaw and neck as she began to writhe slightly against him. He moaned now with that sensation and his kisses became more heated. He found a spot between her ear and jaw to suckle and she whimpered and whispered, "Jesus…Marshall…please…"

The man didn't just burn, he was a raging inferno. This was her partner? This man who reduced her to pleading whimpers? Her body reacted to his every touch, and each kiss caused her breath to catch and her pulse to jump. She thrust her hips against his hardness, an invitation for more intimate contact and he moaned again, pulling his head back to look at her with naked desire before finally placing his mouth firmly over hers. She wanted her hands now, but they were locked in his grip and he was focused on driving her mad with his tongue. Swirling, tasting…suckling her lower lip as she matched him with nips and nibbles, sucking on his tongue at one point and enjoying the throaty sound of desperation that provoked as he pressed harder into her.

Marshall's hand slid down to cover Mary's breast and she gasped against his mouth. His fingers were so warm through her t-shirt and light bra and his hand encompassed her. Just as his thumb began to circle slowly around her nipple, a voice called from the other room.

"Hey! Are you guys in there? Can we get another pizza?"

They froze and their eyes met in shock.

Marshall recovered his voice and called, "Hold on a minute. I'm getting this cut dressed." He didn't sound normal at all, but Manny wouldn't know.

"Oh…okay." Manny called back, apparently satisfied with the answer.

Marshall released her wrists and placed his hands on the wall on either side of her and she rested her hands on his shoulders while her head dropped to his chest. He put his forehead against the wall and ground out, "Fuck."

Mary couldn't help but giggle as she realized they had almost gotten caught making out in a hotel room like a pair of errant teenagers. "I haven't felt this naughty in a very long time." She whispered. She was enjoying the fact that Marshall was still pressed against her and still aroused.

He began to chuckle too and rumbled in her ear, "Let's thank God he didn't come in here!"

That thought sobered her. Getting caught in this kind of compromising position by a witness could have unsavory ramifications. Also, both of them had forgotten he was there. That would not do.

Marshall's thoughts, as usual, mirrored her and he took a deep breath before pulling away from her reluctantly. "We cannot do that again while he's on board…while anyone's on board."

"No. Jesus, that was crazy…I wasn't thinking." She was pleased he hadn't said it was a mistake, just that they would have to time it more carefully. Mary looked up to see him smiling at her and he reached over to tuck a strand of her hair behind her ear.

"God…you make me lose my mind, woman. Promise me you'll do it again."

"Just bring me the bandaids." Mary winked at him.

Marshall put his shirt on and adjusted his jeans with a wry grin while Mary leaned against the wall and watched him. She gave him a thumbs up as he held his hands out to his sides for her approval. Heading back to sit on her bed, she heard Manny call again.

"How long does it take to put on a bandaid? Are you two fucking like rabbits in there or what?"

Mary fell onto the bed with her face buried in her pillow as she laughed insanely.

Marshall walked through the door glaring at his witness, "Shut up, Manny. Not all of us have to hump every beautiful woman we see. Here's the phone book…order your own damn pizza."

Slowly, it dawned on the laughing woman that Marshall had just called her beautiful. That thought kept a grin on her lips as she fell asleep face down with her jeans on.

***** Can you hear the screeching brakes?? Don't you just want to feel Marshall's back? Raise your hands now! Please review...tell me how I'm progressing! *****


	10. Chapter 10

***** I tried!! But the zest moved itself to subsequent chapters...sigh. Gotta set up some plot and have Mary deal with a few things. Stay tuned though...the zestiness becomes downright mouthwatering! *****

She wouldn't have heard it if it wasn't for the dream.

She was standing in a puddle in the middle of a field and there was no one to be seen in any direction. She held a weapon in each hand, but didn't know why and called out, "Hello?" Suddenly, she heard the roar of the tornado and whipped around. Coming straight at her was the rapist from the basement, leaping through the air, and she raised both guns and fired. He disappeared in a puff of smoke, but she heard more roaring behind her and spun again. One of the men from the motel now sprang from the tall grass and she poured bullets into him. Again and again they came at her…all those she had killed, or almost killed, over the years. She was crying and turned again to confront the next danger, firing as she whirled. She saw his face too late and yelled, "No!" The man didn't disintegrate, but landed at her feet…her father. She threw herself on him, wracked with grief. A hand touched her shoulder and she tensed, ready to shoot again, but it was Marshall's voice she heard. "It's okay, Mare. You have me now." Mary stared at him as he faded away and she was left sitting next to her father's body with the sound of crickets in the air.

Mary awoke suddenly and sat up as the dream was stripped away. Her face was wet with tears and she wiped at them, realizing she was still dressed in her t-shirt and jeans. Marshall must've covered her with a blanket at some point as it was gathered at her feet due to her nocturnal struggles. She shook her head slightly because she could still hear the crickets…wait. Sitting very still and holding her breath she tried to identify the scratching sound as something real. Her eyes were drawn to the door and she carefully and silently snuck closer to investigate. Someone was on the other side quietly and meticulously doing something to the lock. These were card lock doors and she narrowed her eyes to wonder if you could even pick that kind of lock. Thinking quickly, she slowly moved the bar lock over to an open position so if the purpose of the outside activity was to gain access it would be granted. "_Welcome to my parlor…_" she thought.

Trotting over to grab her gun, she slipped through the adjoining door and over to Marshall's bed. Knowing she was going to end up on the business end of his gun for it and hoping he wasn't too quick on the trigger, she leaned down and whispered in his ear.

"Marshall, wake up."

Within moments, Mary had Marshall's gun pressed into her abdomen as his other hand grabbed her forearm. She hissed, "It's me, you idiot. Quiet…someone's tampering with the lock on my door. C'mon."

He was instantly awake with her whisper and reflexively moved to neutralize the threat. His brain snapped, "_Mary_" at nearly the same time, and he released her immediately while his heart pounded. He was up as soon as her words penetrated and he followed her over to the adjoining door.

Leaning into her, he whispered, "Don't do that! I have an itchy trigger finger when I'm on watch."

"You wouldn't have shot me. You knew it was me before you knew it was me."

"What?" he was running that sentence around in his mind.

"Shhh! Listen."

He could hear the scratching noise, then a sudden pop, and signaled her to stay and watch Manny while he crept over to stand behind the door as it began to open centimeter by centimeter. Mary kept out of sight in the shadows of the door to Manny's room and watched as a dark, silent figure moved into her room. She shuddered as she saw him move to the bed and place a small folder on her pillow. Marshall loomed silently behind him, and as the man turned to leave was brought up short by a gun pressed to his forehead.

"Can I help you?" the tall man asked menacingly, and as Mary appeared with her weapon drawn to flank him, their captive slowly raised his hands out to his sides to indicate surrender.

Mary moved around behind the man and snapped on the light.

"I'm just the delivery boy, man." The intruder spoke slowly, very aware of his precarious position.

"A very talented delivery boy. Picking electronic locks isn't something you learn on the street." Mary was suspicious. Marshall had the man pinned down, so she holstered her weapon and retrieved her cuffs. She secured the man's hands and sat him on the bed while her partner relaxed slightly, still with weapon at ready.

The delivery boy was all of mid twenties and slight in stature. He looked like a professional thief based on his attire and the items attached to his belt. He also looked scared out of his mind.

"Who sent you?" asked Marshall.

"I don't know"

He received a slap upside the head from Mary as she sneered, "Wrong answer."

"Christ! I really don't know!" the man pleaded, "I advertise on the internet and the money and job are dropped off at a pre-determined location. I was supposed to deliver this folder into the room. Nobody told me you were a cop!"

"Too bad for you." drawled Marshall.

Mary picked up the folder gingerly and dumped the contents onto the bed, sucking in her breath as she did so. More photos of her and Marshall, this time taken while they were in Quinter. Marshall standing near the burnt out barn at the Campbell ranch, a number of both of them at the crime scene and entering or exiting their hotel room and one of Mary getting out of the pool. In addition, there was a typed note.

"_You didn't even know I was there. Leave Manny and go home…before you regret it."_

Marshall was chilled and enraged at the same time. He considered himself a skilled Marshal, observant and attentive. The fact that someone had been following them for this long and intruding into their lives without him sensing it or spotting it stuck in his craw. He could tell Mary was thinking along similar lines by the set of her jaw and narrowing of her eyes.

Not only was Mary furious about the same thing as Marshall, she was now intensely worried about her family back home. The person responsible for these photos could've followed her to her house and that meant they would know Brandi and Jinx lived there. She needed to take immediate action.

"I have to make a call." she announced to Marshall as she moved towards the bathroom.

Her partner looked slightly confused, but turned his attention back to the man on the bed and picked up the room phone to call hotel security. Claiming a break in, he requested they send up an officer to detain the man and watched the thief slump in defeat. Marshall gathered up the photos while waiting for the security detail and could hear bits and pieces of Mary's conversation. She was on the phone to Stan, and he could tell she was getting agitated.

"Damn it, Stan, I don't care what excuse you have to use! Just get them out of there for a few days until we solve the problem." She was pacing and couldn't believe Stan was giving her a hard time about this. She listened to her boss talk about procedure and department policy with half an ear and cut him off mid-stream.

"Stan. Listen to me. If you can't help me then I'm going to call Bobby. I don't think you want him wrapped up in this mess." It was a threat she knew he'd take seriously. Drawing the APD's attention to the situation would just complicate matters.

"For Chrissake, Mary…I can't be using manpower on Brandi and Jinx unless they're in the program, and I don't think we need to resort to that. We don't even know if they're actually in any danger. Use your head." Stan was exasperated too.

Mary knew he was right and squeezed her eyes shut to think while she paced. "_Where to put them…where to put them?_" She suddenly snapped her fingers. "Stan, my mom has a friend she visits in Jersey every year. Can you at least help me make arrangements to send them out there for a week or two? Have Eleanor use my credit card to book the flights and hotel…what? Of course she knows the number…she's practically a damn spy!" Mary snarled at the phone before speaking again, "Just make sure they get on the plane. Believe me, you have to watch them actually board the goddamn thing. I'll call them and make something up…they won a trip or I have frequent flyer miles or something." She was waving her hand in the air as she thought.

Marshall hadn't actually thought of the implied threat to Mary's mother and sister as of yet and he felt somehow neglectful in that matter. That should've occurred to him sooner, but between the stress of the last few days and the fact that he didn't actually **like** Mary's family, it slipped his mind. The security detail arrived and Marshall gave his statement then retrieved Mary's cuffs as the intruder was given over to the new arrivals.

Mary hung up with Stan assured he would get her family on a flight the next morning. She was drained and had a headache and really wished this trip was about ten thousand times less exciting. Leaning against the wall near the adjoining door, she rested her head back, closed her eyes and sighed.

He saw the toll the situation was taking on his partner and really looked at her for the first time since they left Quinter. Her temple was sporting a colorful bruise that extended down to her jaw and slightly onto her cheekbone, the offending bruise on her left arm retained a colorful palette and was joined by smaller scrapes and bruises along her arms from landing in a pile of chairs at the Sheriff's, and finally, her hands and forearms were covered with small nicks and cuts from the bullet storm today. She had really taken the physical brunt of the damage on this trip and it was all due to **his** witness. Now, she had to worry about her family too and would just keep going until she dropped.

Marshall came over to her and gently rubbed her upper arms as she looked up at him with irritated eyes. "Come on. We're putting you to bed and letting you sleep. Get your pajamas on."

"I'm fine, Marshall," Mary had suddenly gotten angry and pushed him away from her. "I'm so sick of dealing with men who either need to wave their dick around to prove a point, or make our lives miserable because they can't keep it in their pants."

"I certainly hope you're not lumping me into either of those categories." Marshall warned.

"What? No! I'm talking about that asswipe in there and the gorilla back in Quinter." Mary began to slowly pace as her stress level again climbed. "Jesus, Marshall, you're the only man in my life I actually value." She tossed the comment out there casually and Marshall caught it to tuck away and smile at many times later.

Mary suddenly whirled around with a gleam in her eye, tapping her lips with her index finger.

"_Uh oh."_ thought Marshall, alarmed. He knew that look, and the things that happened afterwards usually ended in balls of flame, twisted metal, blood and other unsavory events.

"They want Manny, right?" she was building an idea made with erector sets of razor wire.

"Yeah…"

"They keep following us…"

"Where are you going, Mare?"

"So, why don't we take Manny and hightail it back to a place where there's not many places to hide. Limited cover and we'd be looking for them this time. They couldn't help but follow us…they'd have to because we have the prize." She was looking at him with anticipation. Waiting to see what he thought.

It was a good plan, and she was right. Only one problem, "Stan will never go for this, Mare. He'll want us to get Manny to his next city ASAP. We won't be allowed to put a witness in danger."

"We'd only need forty eight hours at the maximum. Alongi and Bowman would help…shit, even Tucker might be of use." She was mentally urging him to agree and cajoled, "You know it would work. I know you want to do it."

"Your Jedi mind tricks won't work on me, woman." he said in a falsely strange voice.

"Wha…?" she looked utterly confused.

"Sorry…random segue. I agree. Draw them in and then smoke them out. Quinter would be ideal. We now know the local force and they trust us. We know the layout of the ranch and the town. It would probably be the most exciting bust they've had in years.

Mary was getting excited now. "He doesn't have a destination yet, and no one says we have to stay here. We can tell Stan we're keeping him on the move because we suspect we're under surveillance. With this last break in, I really don't think Stan'll squawk too loudly."

"The only wild card is Manny. He still thinks he's bound for heaven with forty two virgins if he makes this drug run." Marshall was sucked into the idea and ticking off problem points in his head.

"I really think Manny has given up all control of his destiny at this point, don't you?" She gave him a look that dared him to disagree.

As if on cue, they both heard the distinctive sound of a deadbolt being thrown in the other room and Marshall was in motion immediately. He charged into Manny's room and grabbed the witness as he tried to make a very undignified attempt at escape. Mary was hot on his heels and they wrestled a flailing, cursing man back to the bed. Marshall took an elbow to the gut and Mary a knee to the forehead, but sheer irritation won and Manny ended up flat on his back with his wrists handcuffed to the bed. They both figured Manny must've been listening at the door while they planned their covert trip back to Quinter.

"Jesus…he had a little more spark in him than I thought!" Mary chuckled wryly as she caught her breath.

"That's what happens when you're denied your virgins…pure sexual frustration whipped into fighting strength." Marshall dryly replied with a wink.

"I know how that goes." Mary was smiling wickedly at Marshall and he shook his head as he chuckled.

She got down on her hands and knees to retrieve Marshall's cell phone that had been thrown off the table and landed under the bed, and when she stood back up triumphantly the floor tilted out from under her feet and her vision grayed around the edges. "Oh!" she said sharply as her legs buckled and she grabbed at the bedspread as she went down to the floor between the beds.

She just laid there for a minute as her fingers and legs tingled weirdly and sounds seemed to fade out. Mary had never fainted in her entire life, so the sensation was completely unfamiliar. Her face was fiery hot while her chest was cold and she felt clammy. There were black spots behind her eyelids that floated around and made her dizzy. She became aware that Marshall was now kneeling next to her and talking while taking her pulse and patting her cheek.

"Mare…Mare. Hey…come on back, babe. Mary, open your eyes."

Marshall had seen her color fade when she stood back up and just knew she was going down. He couldn't get to the other side of the bed fast enough to catch her, but she had grabbed the covers which slowed her fall and he didn't think she had hit the ground too hard. Kneeling next to her, he was slightly worried by her pallor and could see the faint freckles sprinkled across her nose when she was this pale. She started to regain color fairly quickly once she had lain on the ground for a minute or two, and he was relieved to see her eyelids flutter as he called her.

Mary slowly opened her eyes and could still feel the buzzing in her fingers. She blinked a few times and looked over at Marshall. "Whoa…that was fucking weird. What the hell happened?"

"Haven't you ever passed out before?"

"Not without alcohol involved…and it didn't feel like that." She moved everything experimentally, "I feel really disconnected…like I got short circuited or something."

"Yep, that's how it feels. Kind of like a reboot."

She shot him a look, "God, you're such a geek. Help me up."

"Slowly. You try to get up too fast right now and you'll end right back up on the floor. Your body has to recover from the sudden change in blood pressure that caused you to pass out. It probably happened when you had your head down to find the phone then stood up too fast. The blood literally drained out of your brain too quickly, causing you to faint. It's called orthostatic hypotension and is typically seen while recovering from a head…"

"Blah, blah, blah, Dr. Gonzo," she interrupted, "I don't want to lay here on this skanky floor so let's move it."

"Your wish is my command." He bowed and then stood by to assist lightly as she basically oozed onto the bed, sitting on the side with her elbows on her knees.

"If you tell anyone I passed out, you know I'll shoot you, right?"

"These lips are sealed. Never saw a thing." He headed to the bathroom to get her a glass of water.

"So, the swooning thing," Mary's voice was hesitant, "that's not a sign of brain damage or anything is it? From that slobber knocker yesterday?"

"You know, some would say 'brain damage' is redundant for you." He just couldn't resist when she handed them to him on a platter.

"_Some_ should sleep lightly lest they wake up as eunuchs." She smiled tightly.

"Ha! That was a good one." piped in Manny from the next bed. Both Marshals turned to glare daggers at him and he went back to staring at the ceiling silently.

Marshall could tell she was actually concerned and offered, "The fact that you passed out doesn't surprise me at all. Your body has been severely stressed in the last thirty six hours. It has decided it's done."

She huffed, "You never pass out."

"I've gone down once or twice. Remember Horst? I fell right over after the shootout and was definitely fading in and out the rest of the time."

"That was legitimate."

"So is this! It's not a sign of weakness, Mare. It's an autonomic nervous system response to stress overload…physical, emotional and mental. Your body can't maintain its own status quo, a sure sign you need to rest." The damn woman would not admit to herself that she had reached her limits. "I do think the blow to the head has compounded everything. You didn't really get a chance to recover from that before we were off and running again."

"Well I feel fine now." She was lying through her teeth. Her head hurt, she was still woozy and her limbs felt like lead, but there was no way she was going to let her partner see her as a weak creature. Strength was a part of her identity that she clung to rabidly. No one needed to take care of her, and she definitely did not tolerate coddling. Marshall was the only person who she allowed to see her when she was sick or hurt, but even his access was limited. "I'm going to pack my things and we can get rolling out of here soon."

Standing up, Mary pretty quickly realized she was not going anywhere but back to the floor if she didn't sit down again. "_What the fuck?_" she berated herself. Her body was just saying "no" at this point. She sat back down and put her head between her knees.

Marshall had watched her announce her intention to go pack with one eyebrow raised. He had a feeling she wouldn't make it to the door, much less all the way to her room. She looked like crap, but he knew she'd have to figure it out for herself. As she again sat with her head hanging down he had to comment sarcastically.

"That was impressive. I see you jumping right up to get things done."

"Shut up, asshole."

"Here's a plan. It's 1:30 am, why don't you sleep for a couple of hours while I keep watch and then you can drive first while I sleep? I'll grab your stuff and bring it in here because I no longer trust the lock on that other door, and two guns are better than one if someone decides to visit us in this room."

Mary sighed as she gave in reluctantly, "Fine, but I have to call Jinx and Brandi and convince them to go to Jersey in the morning. I suspect it'll be a long conversation."

"I'll call them. They won't argue with me."

Mary had to smile, "They'll fall over themselves to do what **you** tell them. They're still a little afraid of you after that incident with Raph."

Marshall winced a bit at that memory. Raphael had crossed the line one night while arguing with Mary and Marshall had snapped. It wasn't pretty, and he wasn't proud of it, but it had gotten the job done.

Manny spoke quietly, not wanting to upset the two, "What about me? Can you at least take these cuffs off? I can't sleep like this."

Marshall walked over and uncuffed one wrist. "The other one stays on. You earned it."

"But I can't get comfortable like…" the witness' whine was cut short by Marshall's curt tone.

"Figure it out. Now shut up."

Manny glared at both of them while he tried to find a way to sleep with one arm restrained.

Mary lay down on the bed and watched Marshall ferry her things into his room, studying the way he moved and his expressions as he was lost in thought. She had grown accustomed to this man in her life and the ease at which they coexisted was almost frightening. A smile touched her face as she saw him take her pajamas out of her bag and set them on the dresser, in case she wanted to change into them later, she supposed. Little acts of kindness and consideration. She wondered when she had done the same for him recently and her brow furrowed in distress as she realized it had probably been a long time. _"Maybe that's just how we work."_ she wondered.

"What's wrong?" Marshall asked as he noticed the pained look on her face.

She looked at him and voiced her thoughts, "I should be nicer to you."

He grinned and replied, "Actually, that would scare me somewhat. Why the sudden attack of conscience?"

A drowsy Mary was an honest Mary. "I've gotten attached to you, idiot. Hate to see you run for the hills at this point."

Her partner came over to crouch down next to the bed, which placed his face about a foot in front of hers, and he rested his chin on his folded forearms. "I'm a bit attached to you, too." He stated quietly, pitching his voice just for her, "I'm not going anywhere." Leaning forward slightly, he placed a soft and lingering kiss on her lips, then one on her forehead before he stood again. "Get some sleep."

Mary decided to listen to him for once.

***** Back to Kansas, Dorothy!! I wonder what Marshall did to Raph? I figured I had beat Mary up enough and she needed a little rest before the next round with Marshall...she'll need it ;) Loving, loving, loving the reviews!!! Please keep them coming to help me keep the story interesting *****


	11. Chapter 11

***** Upped the rating for a reason...yay! The road to Quinter is paved with ice cream :) Thanks to kathiann for all her ideas and encouragement, and thanks to seren_ccd for using my songs in her iFic and letting me know Marshall likes Sonic ;)*****

Manny was whiny and demanding at 5 am as they gathered their things to get on the road, and Marshall had to promise Mary a pancake breakfast in the near future to keep her from shooting his witness. While she had been sleeping, Marshall had managed to coordinate Brandi and Jinx's departure to Jersey without too much difficulty. He told them Mary needed the house empty for two weeks while the Marshal's office decontaminated it due to an anthrax threat. It was hard to keep the laughter from his voice as Jinx panicked and wanted to leave right away, but it was effective and both women promised to be packed and ready on the doorstep by 7:30 am when Stan would pick them up.

Being industrious, Marshall also called Stan and explained the possible surveillance and his concerns for Manny and for himself and Mary. Stan actually agreed that taking Manny and remaining randomly on the move was a good idea. Their boss didn't want to know where they were going, just wanted them to check in everyday. There was still no news as to where Manny would end up as the higher ups weren't even sure they still wanted him in the program. He'd keep the Marshals updated.

His nocturnal activities did not wake the two sleeping people in the room, and Marshall spent some time between calls watching the blonde woman in his bed. He liked to look at her as she slept since that was the only time she appeared relaxed and unguarded, ultimately finding some peace after shutting out the real world.

As he often did, Marshall wondered what drew him to her so strongly. He remembered meeting her and immediately recognizing a challenge. She would be difficult to work with and even more difficult to befriend and he reveled in that Herculean task. His resolve to remain her partner was solidified the first time he saw her interact with a minor witness.

The little girl was eight and being transported across the country to a new family after her parents were killed in a gang initiation gone bad. The child was withdrawn and belligerent and Mary never raised her voice or criticized her, just continued to soothe her and draw her into games or books that seemed to distract her. Each night, the girl had nightmares, and each morning Marshall would find Mary curled up in her bed with her as she had gotten up to comfort her in the night. On the last night, he had heard voices in the room and went to investigate only to quietly stand in the doorway and watch his partner play Barbie dolls with the child. Mary was smiling and the little girl was giggling as they danced their dolls to music only they could hear. It was a side of her he had never seen before, and would rarely see again…a glimpse into her true character and he was hooked. One week later he had to prevent her from castrating her next witness.

She threw up a façade that would make an Escher drawing seem like a finger painting, all twists and turns with false walls and unseen pits. Her defense mechanisms would leave you upside down and backwards and all you could do is retreat and lick your wounds. Marshall had withstood her attempts to stomp him down, run him off and turn him against her. Over time, he'd studied her graffiti strewn walls and seen the true beauty in that artwork, and when he had learned about her father and her past he understood…a little girl playing Barbie was never going to have her heart broken again. She had pushed everyone away for so long that she just didn't know any other way, and that was okay with him. He knew the façade protected her from the world, and he would fight tooth and nail to help her keep it in place. Little did he realize she had integrated him into her walls and now he stood within them instead of outside.

He remembered one definition for the word 'love': the object of attachment, devotion or admiration. He smiled as he watched her…attached to him indeed.

They grabbed some to-go breakfast food from the lobby and piled into the SUV quickly, Mary and Marshall keenly aware of their surroundings and wanting to put distance between Oklahoma City and Manny as soon as possible. Mary mirrored her partner's actions the day before and drove randomly for about thirty minutes to sight any tails, and once she was satisfied they were all alone, headed north on I-35 to Wichita.

She felt a hundred times better than the night before, amazed that four hours of sleep would be so rejuvenating. She rolled her window down to enjoy the relatively cool, early morning air and admired the sunrise as she drove. Marshall, used to her desire for fresh air over recycled, hunkered down in the passenger seat and allowed the rush of the wind to lull him to sleep. Manny attempted to have a conversation with her and was greeted by rude rebuttals. He eventually called her a bitch, got the evil eye in the rearview mirror and resorted to listening to his iPod on high volume.

Two hours later and thirty miles south of Wichita, Mary spotted a tail. She had seen the dark blue Chevy Malibu in her side mirror about a half hour ago and just had a weird feeling about it. Trusting her gut, she changed lanes lazily a few times with casual speed changes and it never passed her. Not directly behind her, but always managing to find its way into her view again. Whoever it was wasn't extremely skilled at tailing someone, but they would've been missed by a less observant driver. Needing to assure herself before waking her partner, she picked the next exit and passed a few cars in the far lane, then smoothly swept across two inner lanes to drop into the exit lane and head down the ramp.

"When did we pick up the tail?" asked Marshall as he sat up in the passenger seat and was immediately checking the mirrors. He knew the feel of Mary's driving and the inconsistencies woke him about five minutes ago.

"I suspected about a half hour ago. Just trying to confirm it now." She took a right at the stop light and then another right immediately into a restaurant parking lot and parked where a full sized van blocked them from the view of anyone exiting the highway. "It's a blue Malibu with no front plates."

Sure enough, the Malibu arrived at the bottom of the exit ramp as she finished her sentence. The Marshals shared a look of concern and annoyance. They watched as the car slowly turned right and cruised along well under the speed limit…hunting them. Mary knew they would be spotted, and just as the Malibu passed the entrance to the parking lot and braked, she pulled out of her spot quickly and sped onto the street behind the tail, across the divider and back to the on ramp up to the highway. She bought them a little time and was pushing 85 as she sped to the next exit two miles away.

Marshall turned on the navigation system (Mary always turned it off…she claimed it watched her all the time and was creepy) to peruse their options, and Manny started to ask a lot of questions in the back seat.

"What the hell are you doing? Are you trying to get us killed? What's going on, Marshall?"

Marshall told him to shut up in no uncertain terms and the man sulked with his arms crossed. Mary gained the next exit without either of them seeing the Malibu in the rearview mirror and began to take a series of turns as her partner called them out to her. After about twenty minutes, they felt confident that they had shaken the tail and pulled into a grocery store parking lot to regroup.

"How the hell did they find us, Marshall?"

"I can't figure it out either. I didn't even tell Stan where we were going, just that we would be on the move and check in each day. Manny didn't talk to anyone…no one knew but us. I haven't even called Alongi yet." He was stumped.

"Is there a possibility the truck has a tracker?" Mary didn't think so as all the WITSEC vehicles were custom wired to include antibug software. If there was anything attached to the car that emitted a radio frequency within a certain range, they would be alerted.

"No…that software is too good." Marshall knew his software.

She was deep in thought and it began to run along the lines of, "_What have we had with us this whole time since finding Manny?_" They had confiscated and handed over the cell phone, made him leave his suitcase and toiletry bag at the destroyed hotel, only letting him keep the clothes on his back and…

Mary turned around in her seat quickly and snatched Manny's iPod out of his hands and the ear buds out of his ears. He slapped at her arms and began to struggle with her to keep his belongings. Losing the fight, Manny resorted to grabbing Mary's hair and she ground out, "Marshall."

Already moving before her request, her partner leaned over his seat and used a pressure grip under Manny's arm while ordering, "Let her go and hand it over." Manny's arm went numb and pain jacked through his torso which forced him to release Mary. She took her prize and slipped out the driver's side door with it. Marshall let go of Manny, told him to stay and left the truck to join Mary.

"We don't know if that's the culprit. You might be wasting a perfectly good playlist." Marshall smirked.

"His taste in music sucks…country and hip hop. I'd rather shoot myself."

Marshall held out his hand and she gave him the iPod with a questioning look, "What are you going to do with it?"

"Bait."

She watched him walk over to a plant container and place the device inside it. Rejoining her, he asked, "Got anywhere to be in the next half hour? If it's the tracker, they'll show up and be looking for it, if not, they'll show up and be looking for us."

"Forty minutes." She stated.

"Twenty. We've been stopped for ten."

The turned to each other for a quick two out of three rock-paper-scissors and Marshall won.

He looked at her and a slow, mischievous grin spread across his face. "_Antelope!_" she thought frantically, and before she could take back the offer he defined the terms.

"Loser has to share their ice cream with the winner."

The look in his eyes almost made her hope to lose and she shivered involuntarily. Marshall's eyes wandered down to her chest as her shiver perked up parts of her anatomy and he said softly, "You do have nice breasts." Winking, he headed back to the truck.

She blew out a breath of anticipation and frustration as she followed his eyes. Taking her seat again, she reached over to smack him as he continued to leer at her. Both chuckling now, she started the SUV and they drove to a bank across the street to covertly watch for their prey. Manny was sending her hateful looks from the backseat and she flipped him off.

They were rewarded twenty minutes later when the blue Chevy pulled into the grocery store parking lot. It circled a few times, then pulled into a slot and a short man got out and walked towards the planter with a device in his hand. Once he found the iPod, he pulled out a cell phone and they could tell the discussion was heated. Marshall was out his door and on the move across the street while the man was distracted as Mary watched carefully.

Looping around behind the Chevy, Marshall was able to walk right up behind the short man and grabbed him around the neck like they were old friends. It was an effective chokehold and if the man struggled, his air was immediately cut off. He went with the Marshal to the Malibu, and as he opened the driver's door, Marshall knocked him out with the butt of his gun and piled his unconscious form into the seat. Taking the cell phone, the tall man jogged back across the street to jump in to the running SUV.

"Nicely done, geekwad." Mary had latched onto Marshall's unspoken plan when she saw him snag the phone. Now they had someone to talk to, and the whole plan was based on luring the perps to Quinter. Also, with no one tracking them any longer, they could detour to get rid of Manny before heading to their goal…both only too glad to get rid of the dead weight.

Marshall called Stan as Mary once again headed back to the highway, updated him on their status and activities and listened for a while with nods and occasional questions. He finally snapped the phone shut.

"Take the next exit onto 54, we're taking Manny to Topeka." Craning his neck to look into the back seat at the scowling man, Marshall added, "We found you a nice home, fella. I told them you needed a rabies shot and a flea bath."

"I think they should neuter him too." quipped Mary. Marshall laughed as they turned towards Topeka.

On the way, Marshall pulled numbers off of the cell phone he confiscated and sent them to Stan. Having discussed possible plans with Mary, her partner then texted the last number called on the phone.

"_Since you liked Quinter so much, we decided to take Manny for a visit._"

Without the tracking device, whoever was on the other end would not know they were leaving Manny in Topeka and would walk into a world of hurt.

Mary smiled at him with a gleam of anticipation for the hunt, and Marshall felt his thighs tighten slightly at that look. His wildcat.

* * *

Five hours later and one witness lighter, Marshall called in his bet. It was another hot day and he was sick of being in the car and had just seen a sign for a Dairy Queen in the upcoming town of Salina. Mary was more than happy to take a break, especially if it involved ice cream.

Kansas City Marshals met them in Topeka and took Manny under their naïve wing. Marshall warned them of his propensity to belly up when a woman was involved, but he knew in his gut Manny would never survive until trial. It was depressing, really, and Mary noticed the souring of her partner's mood. He perked up slightly as she treated him to Sonic for lunch, and by the time he was driving for an hour he was humming and seemed back to normal.

Mary called Tony Alongi in Quinter as she and Marshall agreed he could be trusted with some sensitive information. She let him know they were returning to Quinter for a sting operation and requested his help. Asking him not to tell anyone for the time being, they promised to update him with further info after they got there. Alongi agreed, curious and eager to help.

As they pulled into the Dairy Queen parking lot, Marshall looked at his partner and warned, "There's no number six for you today. My heart can't take it."

She laughed and drew a cross over her heart, "Swear not to abuse any chocolate covered bananas today." He made her pinky swear and she narrowed her eyes at him.

They both got hot fudge sundaes and saw some picnic tables in the shade across the street in a little park. Wandering over, they chit chatted about the events of the day.

"So, what the hell are we going to do when we get to Quinter?" Mary asked as they sat on one of the benches.

"Shit, I don't know. I'm making this up as I go."

"Seriously? You don't have a plan?" she was looking at him incredulously, "Marshall, you have a plan for everything. I was expecting timelines down to the minute here. Mr. Spontaneous you are not."

"It's all been thrown at us pretty fast, I think you would agree. I'm still in reaction mode." He was trying to defend himself.

"I'll give you that, but I've seen you foil a bank heist with a security guard, two meter maids and a nerf gun in under thirty minutes. Surely we have a little more to work with here?"

He had to chuckle at that memory…good times. He looked over to see her sundae half gone and protested, "Hey…you have to share some of that with me."

"Fine." She relented with an eye roll. Taking a spoonful, she held it out and he ate it. Watching him take the ice cream off the spoon, Mary felt the temperature in her little universe rise about ten degrees. There was something oddly intimate about feeding him. Looking up, she met his eyes as realized he was probably thinking along the same lines.

"I can be spontaneous." he said softly.

"Really? I don't believe it."

He took his finger and dipped it in her sundae and put a drop of melted ice cream on the hollow of her neck. She sucked in a breath.

"You had no idea I was going to do that." he teased, licking the rest of the ice cream off his finger.

"Still not impressed or convinced" she teased back.

His eyes had become darker and he shifted to sit right next to her. Leaning forward, he bent his head to her neck and licked the drop off. Mary's hormones clapped in glee as they ran amok.

"Okay…I'm convinced, but you'll have to do better to impress me." She murmured.

Taking the bowl from her, he dipped his finger in again and put a drop on the swell of her breast just above the edge of her t-shirt. Her breathing increased and she caught his hand as he pulled it away, bringing it up to slowly draw his finger into her mouth and suck the ice cream off. She watched his face change to reflect his growing desire and smiled.

"Didn't know I was going to do that…did you?"

His answer was to lean in a capture her lips with a teasing kiss that made her tingle in all the right places, catching her lower lip with his teeth as he drew back. His jeans were too tight and he wanted to throw her down right here in this little park and have his way with her. Feeling her tongue swirl around his finger sent his brain to wonder what else it could swirl around.

He placed one hand behind her shoulder and drew her towards him as he licked the drop of ice cream off the top of her breast and she hissed in a slow breath at the trail of heat left behind. Marshall watched as his action caused her nipples to harden and let out a soft "oooh" of want. Another dip into the ice cream and he dripped a portion into the valley between her breasts, making her jump slightly at the coldness.

Having him watch her body react only fueled her own need and she encouraged him, "Aren't you going to get that?"

Suddenly, he reached over and drug her into his lap to straddle him and she gasped. He was so hard against her and she shifted to settle onto him, causing him to moan and squeeze her hips. Meeting her eyes again, his hands slid up her sides until both thumbs rested on the undersides of her breasts and was rewarded with her lips parting and her eyes flashing. He dipped his head and slowly licked the ice cream from between her breasts as his thumbs then moved to caress her nipples through her shirt.

"_I need to take this man home with me._" She thought desperately as her body urged her to shift her hips over him again as she arched her back slightly. "Marshall…we're out in broad daylight." she whispered, slightly concerned they were giving Salina, KS a very improper show.

"There's no one over here…I looked." He growled against her breast as he continued to nuzzle and lick along the edge of her t-shirt while his thumbs continued to circle. He moved his mouth over one nipple and exhaled to heat it through the shirt and she looked down at him quickly with anticipation. Smiling up at her, he slowly slid the material of her shirt and bra aside until he uncovered her. She was watching his hands and made a little moaning sound with his actions.

His eyes traveled back to her bare breast and he sighed, "Oh my God, you're exquisite." Tracing his fingers over her slowly, he took in the feel of her beneath his hands as she writhed slightly on his lap. Knowing what she wanted, he lowered his mouth and teasingly traced her nipple with his tongue. The taste of her inflamed him and his other hand traveled to her lower back to pull her against him snugly.

She tangled her hands in his hair and urged his mouth closer with little pleas. He teased her mercilessly for a few moments more but couldn't resist her sounds and finally opened his mouth to suckle her. Her body arched into him as she squirmed on his lap and he almost came undone. His tongue circled and lapped at her nipple as he jerked his hips against her.

"Ah, God…Marshall…slow down. I'm too worked up…you're going to kill me." she panted.

Her words penetrated his brain and he remembered where they were. Licking her slowly a few more times, he reluctantly covered her back up and ran his hands up her chest to cup her head. She was flushed and beautiful on his lap and he drew her down to him to kiss her slowly and deeply.

She fell into his kiss and allowed the sensations of his lips and tongue to pleasurably course through her, moaning as she ran her fingers through his hair. This man kissed her like no other man ever did…like she was the most desirable woman on the planet.

He decided his could live the rest of his life just kissing this woman on his lap and feel complete. Every molecule in his body was melting and he was happy to become a puddle. Her lips were intoxicating and when she moaned his gut clenched.

Suddenly, they heard children crossing the street to enter the park and one said, "Are those people kissing? Ewww!"

Laughing and embarrassed, the pair drew apart and Marshall made a face and said, "Ewww…kissing."

Mary giggled and agreed, "Gross."

She scooted back a bit on his lap and he ran his hands down her arms to lightly grasp her wrists. "I don't know what we're doing, Mare, but I like it."

She raised one hand to brush the hair off his forehead and said, "I think we're filling in gaps."

"What do you mean?"

She was remembering her dream with her father, "I think we've both been trying to find something, or someone, to fill gaps where things are missing. The problem is, we've been using the wrong stuff and it doesn't stick."

"Washes out."

"Yeah…or crumbles, and the gap is still there." She took a deep breath and plowed foreward, "I've figured out that you're made of the right stuff Marshall Mann. I'm kind of hoping you stick."

Her words filled him with hope and he smiled, "I'm kind of hoping you stick too Mary Shannon."

He stood and slid her off his lap, laced his fingers through hers and walked back to the truck while telling her the story of how he washed his own mouth out with soap when a girl kissed him on the playground in fourth grade.

***** oooo...that's a toe curler! Stay tuned for more gunplay and foreplay! Reviews!!! *****


	12. Chapter 12

***** Back to Quinter to set the trap. Some plot development and little yumminess to keep you interested ;) *****

"I would think very carefully about the words that are going to come out of your mouth." Mary warned her partner with narrowed eyes.

They had been discussing Native American names, which had begun when Marshall spouted seemingly endless trivia on the state of Kansas including the meaning of its Sioux name, "people of the south wind". He told her many tribes would give their members three names: a birth name, a child's name and then an adult name. Each would be descriptive of the character of the person at those stages of life. Mary had teased that his name would've remained the same throughout life…Dork. To which he replied he could think of a few names for her as an adult. Thus the warning from his partner. Of course, Marshall never was one to heed warnings.

"She who leaves bruises."

"True."

"Woman of foul language."

"Damn, fucking straight." She liked that one.

"She who does not tip."

"Hey! You know what I think about that." she shoved him, causing him to veer the truck slightly.

He retaliated by severely messing up her hair as she tried to ward him off. She didn't like anyone touching her hair, and Marshall often pulled it or flipped it just to irk her. He privately remembered that she didn't seem to mind him gripping it while she was up against the wall yesterday. A sly, little grin appeared on his face with the memory.

Their roughhousing stopped as the cell phone Marshall took off the man in Wichita rang. Mary grabbed it and looked at caller ID. "Well, it looks like someone wants to talk to us." The number was the one they had texted earlier.

She answered, "Nice day for a drive, isn't it?"

The IT guys in Albuquerque hadn't been able to successfully trace the number as they ran into a number of routers following it back. Mary was running blind.

"I suppose you and your partner think you're fairly clever, eh?" The male voice on the other end had a faint, eastern European accent. Mary wrote that down on the pad of paper she had grabbed to place between her and Marshall.

Holding the phone away from her ear, she raised her eyebrows at Marshall, "I'd say we're fairly clever, wouldn't you, partner?" He winked at her.

Back into the phone she confirmed, "Yes. It has been decided that we are clever." She was going to let the man on the phone lead the conversation.

"I only want my mule back. He has cost me a great deal of money and caused me grief. I do not care about you." Mary wrote 'wants Manny back only' on the pad.

"Aw…and here I thought we could embark on a beautiful relationship." she pouted. "I'm sorry, but Manny can't work for you anymore. He's our property now and we don't share."

"Tsk, tsk, Mary Shannon," the man clucked his tongue at her, "you do not want me to send someone to take him from you. It will not turn out well for you or Mr. Mann."

Marshall saw her scowl and read her note. 'knows our real names' and 'warning us off'. He hissed out a breath.

"I've seen your poor attempts to retrieve him, asshole. I think we'll take our chances, so come and get him if you want him." Mary quickly tired of games.

There was a pause, then the voice spoke softly, "You will change your mind by this time tomorrow, Miss Shannon." She rolled her eyes as she wrote 'says I'll change my mind = threat?' on the pad. Marshall was not amused.

"I doubt it. I'm not known to be wishy washy."

"I see. Well, then, you will hear from me soon. I bid you adieu." the connection was severed.

Mary smiled at Marshall and announced, "I believe the game is afoot."

"I guess we'll need a plan then?"

"Darn tootin', Cowboy. I'm not hanging my ass out to get shot off without someone to cover it." Mary was rolling ideas around in her head and not getting a good feel for anything solid. "He said he would send someone to get Manny. I wonder how many someones that entails?"

Marshall was quiet and Mary looked over at him to see him thinking hard. She liked that look on his face, intense and slightly intimidating. She sat and waited, knowing he'd toss some things out when he was ready.

"I think there's a leak." he finally said about ten minutes later, "I just can't fit the pieces together without a leak to link them up. There is no way we were followed to Quinter, so there must have been someone there to relay that information to the man on the phone. They probably didn't know we were in Oklahoma either until we showed up to get Manny. Did you notice the pics from Quinter were all taken after we had been there for three days? That's travel time."

Mary pondered this information and decided it made sense. How easy would it be to bribe a small town, low level deputy to make some phone calls and keep an eye on things. Especially if they were told no harm would come to anyone…just a surveillance job. There were quite a few people at the ranch with the deputies, forensics crew and a few state patrol reps in and out every day. Easy to infiltrate the veritable crowd and snap a few pictures. And unless you're watching for it, you're not going to notice people who move nearly silently through society every day like housekeepers and delivery boys.

"You don't think it's Tony, do you?" The man seemed to be on the up and up.

"No…and not that bastard, Swafford, either. He's too stupid to trust."

"We'll have to be careful…and we're going to have to trust Alongi with some info." Mary hated taking chances when forced to reveal their identity.

Her partner shook his head slightly as he chuckled, "Not a problem as he's got us pegged anyway. The guy's sharp. I don't know why **he's** not the Sheriff."

"Didn't kiss enough babies, I suppose."

"Well, I figure we've got about two to three hours once we roll into town to get set up and powwow with Tony until the posse arrives. If we play our cards right, we'll be able to keep them off our scent until morning and then start playing with them while we have the light and home field advantage." Marshall's brain was buzzing with ideas and he started dealing them out to his partner for discussion and rebuttal.

Mary added details and elements of danger to his grand plans, and by the time they were twenty miles from Quinter they had a scenario that just might work. Marshall called Tony and had him meet them at the Budget Host hotel.

* * *

They parked the SUV in the hotel lot, but didn't register. Tony was waiting for them, they quickly transferred their belongings to his car and were soon driving to his house. Mary was concerned they would put his family in danger, but the deputy told them Betsy and the boys had gone to her family's cabin in Breckenridge for the rest of the summer. He would join them when the fun was over.

Alongi offered them beer and BBQ ribs and Mary just about kissed his feet. They were hungry and tired and still had a long strategy session ahead of them. Carbs were essential. Finally being able to sit and relax for a little while, Mary changed into a pair of shorts and a t-shirt and joined the men on the patio to lounge in a chair with her bare feet propped on a low wall and a cold beer in her hand. She was reading the personnel files on the Sheriff and his deputies that Tony had snagged out of the office. Marshall was now distracted as he had briefly forgotten how sexy his partner looked in a pair of shorts. She had some seriously long legs and his eyes kept wandering over to trace their length.

"If she catches you looking, you're going to be wearing that spatula in a very undignified manner." teased Alongi in a voice pitched only for Marshall's ears.

The deputy couldn't blame the Marshal, but hated to see a fellow lawman strung up by the balls.

Marshall snorted and replied, "I can talk her down. She tolerates most of my aberrations for some twisted reason. But you're right, a lesser man would be singing soprano."

As if she read their minds, Mary suddenly called over, "Stop ogling my legs, Pervis…you're going to burn my dinner and I'll have to shoot you in the ass."

Out of the corner of her eye, she watched the two men stop and just stare at her for a moment in shock and smiled in triumph as she stretched just for pure meanness. Marshall just about dropped the spatula and Tony erupted into laughter and slapped the other man on the back.

"I don't envy you being the keeper of that one, pal!"

The ribs were eventually done, and they bounced some ideas off one another as they ate.

"Tony, who's the most likely person on your force to be swayed by easy money?" Marshall asked gently as he didn't want to offend the man.

"I was thinking the same thing, Marshall. Someone's jumped onto another payroll." He looked across at Mary, "Mary, you read the files, who do you think it is?"

She shrugged and said, "My gut says it's Bowman. He's pulling down a paycheck that should easily keep a single man in food, clothing and shelter, but I see he's filed for bankruptcy and had a boat repossessed last month. I'll guess it's a gambling problem, but the money is getting spent faster than it comes in."

Tony toasted her with a beer, "Give the lady a prize. No one else makes sense, and I know these guys…some of them since grade school. They're either too dumb to approach or they cling to that small town code of honor. I'm going to have to go with the Sheriff too."

"Easily tested," Marshall said while nodding, "give him a call and let him know we called you to say we're back in town and staying at the Budget. Mary and I can watch the room a little later to see if they show."

Alongi shook his head and waved Marshall off, "Nah, you guys are beat and need some rest if we're going to go Bonnie and Clyde on their asses tomorrow. I'll have Tucker stake the place out for an unrelated reason and just tell him to keep a log of anyone in the parking lot or entering the lobby. He can call me for hourly updates and we'll have our answer."

Tony called Bowman to pass along the info that Mary and Marshall were back in town while the partners cleaned up dinner. Not knowing how many opponents they would face tomorrow, it took a bit longer to cement plans for luring and trapping their adversaries out at the Campbell ranch. Alongi could provide weapons and manpower. He vouched for four other deputies who'd be strong in this type of situation and made calls asking them to meet at the office around 5:30 tomorrow morning, stressing the need to keep the meeting completely confidential.

By 10 pm, Mary found herself dozing during the conversation and stood to stretch, "Stick a fork in me fellas, I'm done. Where do I sleep?"

"There's a guest room, or the boys have bunkbeds. Whichever you choose."

"I'll take the bunks since mister long and lanky there would have to Houdini himself into them. Don't stay up too late boys, I'm setting the alarm for 4:30 am…gotta go shoot us some bad guys. God, I love my job!" She smiled and waved as she headed down the hall.

Marshall and Tony stayed up for about a half hour more until Marshall ran out of reserve. They had talked about the Marshal Service, and the tall man gave the deputy his card and a number to call for more info regarding qualifications and applications. Marshall let him know he'd be happy to refer him if the urge ever hit. Tony seemed very interested, and to his credit, never asked Marshall which branch he was in.

After getting ready for bed, Marshall just couldn't resist padding into Mary's room to check on her, as he always did when they were under the same roof. He leaned down with plans to kiss her head and she suddenly snagged his wrist and pulled him down on top of her with a grin. Barely missing giving himself a concussion on the upper bunk, he swore as he fell and she chuckled.

Laying on her, he enjoyed her softness underneath him and propped himself up on his elbows to look at her. "What are you up to, young lady?" he muttered.

"No good, I'm sure, and I'm older than you, remember?"

"Four months doesn't count, and I'm told I have an old soul."

She placed her hands on his ass and pulled him against her as she grinned wickedly, "So long as you don't have old working parts." She realized that was a tactical error as his working parts perked right up and he sucked in a breath. He was well muscled under her hands and the pajama pants were not much of a barrier. Almost of their own volition, her hands wandered down along the back of his thighs and back up onto his backside.

"Oh, my, partner…I didn't realize that was there. All those times you accused me of looking at your ass I should've really been looking at your ass."

He chuckled, and that sensation skittered electrical currents through many parts of her body. Leaning down, Marshall placed his mouth next to her ear and whispered, "We have to behave, Mare, it's not proper to disturb our host. And we're in a kids' room. That's just weird." He couldn't resist kissing the skin next to her ear though, and that led to a kiss on her jaw…then another…and finally he just gave up and pressed his lips to hers.

It was slow and lingering, their lips meeting and parting with interludes of nibbles and licks. Marshall had always enjoyed kissing, and took great pleasure in exploring his partner's mouth and tongue with his own. Mary had usually associated kissing with fast and passionate foreplay and hadn't ever given it much credit. This was one of the most amazing, sensual experiences she had had in a very long time. His lips slid over hers and coaxed moans out of her while his tongue tasted and tangled with skills that left her breathless. She was buzzing with desire and her hands wandered under his shirt to feel his skin.

As before, the skin to skin contact heightened his senses and he groaned into her mouth and deepened the kiss. He was still supporting himself on his forearms, and slowly tilted his hips to gently press into her, and she responded by lightly raking her nails down his ribs. They had had jeans on before when this intimately close, and the thin barriers of their sleepwear did not dampen sensations as he rubbed against her softness. Marshall stilled, broke the kiss, ducked his head to lay his face against her neck and blew out a slow, shaky breath.

"You feel so fucking good." He ground out, "I will not last if we continue doing this."

Mary liked that Marshall's language dove into the gutter when he was aroused…those glimpses into the darker side of his nature thrilled her. She shifted her hips beneath him as her hands pulled him close again and replied huskily, "Surely there's something to be said for quick and quiet?" She could feel all of him and wanted him in her now.

He moved suddenly and she found her arms pinned over her head and his weight settled more firmly onto her.

"Mmmmm…baby," he murmured and then nipped sharply at her neck. Mary usually did not care for endearments, but the way Marshall said 'baby' made her hair curl and the bite to her neck made her gasp. She decided he could call her that again if he wanted to. He raised his head to meet her gaze and she could barely breathe. He looked fierce, and somehow powerful and she was captured.

His voice was low and rough, "Let me tell you something…when I have you for the first time," he thrust his pelvis against hers sharply and she involuntarily gave a whimpered groan, "it will be a lot of things," another thrust and she panted, "but I promise you it will not be quick and it will not be quiet." With that, he kissed her hard then rolled off and stood up, resting his hands on the upper bunk and looking down at her.

It took a monumental act of will to resist the now tousled and fully aroused woman lying in the bed. She panted to catch her breath and smiled at him.

"That's a promise I will hold you to."

"I hope so." His eyes raked over her in a way that only ramped her back up and made her toes curl. Grunting, he turned to the door and said, "G'night, Mare…sweet dreams."

"'Nite Marshall," she replied, then added as he shut her door, "they'll be of you." Her dreams did not disappoint.

***** All this plotting and planning...can't wait for the showdown...the one with guns and the one with body parts ;) Hope you are enjoying...let me know!! *****


	13. Chapter 13

***** Gun play and foreplay...oh my! Marshall is deliciously naughty and, well...read!*****

Mary was awake before 5 am for the third time this week. Some cosmic force in the universe delighted in this perversity, she was sure. The only thing that motivated her to drag her ass out of the bed was the smell of coffee and bacon wafting in under the door.

As Marshall heard the door to the boys' room open, he filled a cup of coffee and held it out as a sacrificial offering to the grumpy and disheveled woman entering the kitchen. He wasn't entirely sure if she even had her eyes open yet.

"Mary, do you want a bacon, egg and cheese sandwich?" asked Alongi from his position at the stove.

"Bnndegnchss" mumbled Mary as she slumped in her chair with her cup of coffee.

"Just bacon and egg, no cheese." translated Marshall.

"Wdksp."

"With ketchup."

"Ketchup?" asked Alongi, "that's disgusting."

"Gffkyrsff"

Marshall didn't translate, and Alongi said, "What did she say?"

"You don't want to know."

Mary was civil after a cup of coffee and a surprisingly delicious breakfast sandwich. They all showered quickly and then piled into Alongi's truck to head into town.

Alongi filled them in that Tucker had spotted a car park next to the Marshal's SUV around 11:30 last night, and two men had looked into the car and made a phone call, then left. They now knew Sheriff Bowman was their leak, and would take great pains to keep any information from him here on out unless they could use him.

They parked a street over from the hotel and all three snuck in the back. Having Alongi place a sweat jacket over his head and act wimpy, Mary and Marshall half drug him out the front door and threw him into the SUV. The two men watching from across the street updated their boss that the Marshals had just loaded Manny into the truck and would follow them.

They met with the other four deputies in the darkened office, trying to keep visual cues to a minimum for any observers outside. Two of the deputies did not want to participate for various reasons, and since the job was unsanctioned, the Marshals thanked them for coming and just asked that they not discuss it with anyone else. That left five of them against at least two, not bad odds. They spent about two hours mapping the layout of the ranch and locating their positions and plans of attack. Alongi made sure everyone had weapons and ammunition, plus some. At 8:30, Mary, Marshall and Alongi reversed their steps to the hotel and out back to his truck on the side street. They wanted to be at the ranch well before anyone else arrived. The two deputies back at the station waited until Sheriff Bowman arrived and then relayed a fake message that the Marshals had called and they were going to take a prisoner out to the ranch to ID some receipts of Campbell's and needed onsite observers to document the activity. Bowman readily sent them and twenty minutes later made a call. It was 9:45 am.

Marshall, Mary and Alongi received word from the deputies and expected the games to begin around 10:30 am. They were in place by 10:10 with adrenaline on board.

* * *

Mary stood slightly to the side of the window with Marshall right behind her, almost touching due to the narrow confines of the room in the ranch hands' quarters. Mary was sweating and could see a fine sheen of sweat on Marshall's forearm bracing him against the wall. They were both watching the driveway and the near horizon. Waiting to see the trail of dust as the hunters responded to the call of their perceived prey. On alert.

She was used to him spouting trivia or drivel in situations like this, but he hadn't said a word in a while.

"You're awfully quiet. What're you thinking about?" she softly asked, just to make a little conversation.

His voice rumbled near her ear, "Do you want to know what calm, cool and collected Marshall is thinking about? Or do you want to know what jacked-up-on-adrenaline-and-you-smell-good Marshall is thinking about?"

She smiled, "Oh, the second one, most definitely."

He slid his hand around to her belly and pressed his hips against her curves as he leaned forward slightly to murmur in her ear huskily, "I'm thinking I could do you from behind right here and we'd both feel a whole lot better."

Mary's brain made a noise that sounded a lot like "_grgugmh_".

Parts of her she didn't even know she had quivered. The raw need in his voice and crude description caused lightning bolts of arousal to shoot through her groin and she pressed back into him involuntarily. That caused his hand to slide slightly further south and she felt him harden against her.

"Careful," he whispered as he nipped her ear lobe and his palm came to rest on her pubic bone, "we can't lose sight of our objective."

"_Oh…my…God…_" breathed Mary silently. She never expected her partner to be this bold and assertive and it absolutely thrilled her. She flexed her muscles to press her pelvis against his hand and he groaned at that movement against his arousal. Her eyes fluttered slightly shut with the sound.

"No, no, baby. Keep your eyes open. We have to watch." his voice was a growl. He continued to nibble and lightly lick her ear.

She refocused on the driveway, unable to even speak at this point as her thoughts were jumbled. Her arousal was swift and complete and she could only feel. "You're making me crazy." she whispered breathily.

"Not yet." he said and she realized he had now unbuttoned her jeans and was sliding the zipper down.

His other arm wrapped around her ribcage to hold her against him and he traced her earlobe with his tongue. As he drew the lobe into his mouth to suck on it, his wandering hand slid into her jeans to gently stroke her through her panties…his hips pressing against her in the same rhythm.

"Ah, God, you're hot," he groaned, then added again, "Keep those eyes open"

Molten rivers of pleasure coursed through her with each stroke of his palm, his fingers curving slightly to press into her as they slid by. Wanting to touch him, but not being able to reach, she gripped the windowsill with one hand while the other reached back to cling to his jeans over his thigh. It was an effort to keep her eyes focused on the yard as the heat built within her.

Marshall was in heaven and hell at the same time. The feel of her damp softness beneath his hand was fueling his desire with every moment and he couldn't have her. She tasted like sweat and Mary and he wanted more. Keeping his eyes on the house, he moved from her ear to her neck as he increased the pace of his strokes.

She felt Marshalls lips now move to suckle her neck and tilted her head back slightly and to the side to give him access. His tongue on the tender flesh beneath her ear made her moan, and she was panting slightly from the motion of his hand. "Dear God, Marshall…you're going to make me explode."

"Oh, that's the plan." With that statement, his fingers slipped beneath the material of her panties and he pushed one finger into her as his palm slid against her tender nub. She thrust herself against his hand and whimpered with pleasure and he nipped the side of her neck as he grunted with frustrated restraint. He increased his pace slightly as he felt her urge him faster and slid in another finger, swirling them slightly inside her with every thrust.

Her world narrowed to the feel of his fingers inside her and against her, touching parts of her that made her gasp each time. "_Those fingers…ah, God, those fingers were made for this…_" was her thought briefly before she felt her muscles clench as he was pushing her to a climax.

She was making small, moaning sounds and he moved his other arm so his hand gently covered her mouth as he murmured into her ear, "Shhh…quiet now. Just feel me." He knew she was close to climax as movements under his hand were jerky and her internal muscles tensed around his fingers. The feel of that just about pushed him over also and he pressed harder into her to keep his sanity. "Come for me…I want to feel you." he urged her breathlessly. His hand over her mouth and his words, combined with deeper thrusts of his fingers caused her to unravel and she felt the climax consume her. She jerked roughly once, twice, then a low groan escaped and she shuddered and thrust through the climax. He bit down on her neck again and growled, closing his eyes briefly as he thought of her soft wetness. He had to concentrate on not following her himself and kissed her jawbone and cheek fiercely to release tension. Waves of delight rippled through her and his bite to her neck produced sparks in front of her eyes. It was incredibly erotic, and combined with the orgasm, almost brought her to her knees. "_I want to do this again and again with him._" she realized in conviction.

She lay back against him limp and panting and he reluctantly withdrew his fingers and put her underwear back in order. "That was beautiful." He whispered as he gently kissed her temple. "Thank you."

"I am so keeping you." Her words were barely audible, "my God, you burn hot and you're full of surprises."

She slowly regained her footing as he zipped and buttoned her jeans. If she had known he could do that, their stakeouts would've been much more interesting prior to this. She could see he was still watching the driveway and was amazed at his focus.

"You'll find I have a few tricks up my sleeve." He looked at her briefly with lust still in his eyes, "You drive me insane, you know."

"Oh, honey, I haven't even climbed into the driver's seat yet." Mary looked at him wickedly.

He smiled back at her and then his eyes snapped to the yard, "There they are."

They put their vests on as they both switched into gun ready mode seamlessly. The truck sped up the driveway and skidded to a stop near the burnt out barn. The Marshals watched with pulses pounding as one man got out of the back seat and surveyed the ranch using binoculars. They ducked behind the wall as his gaze roamed over the ranch hands' quarters, then peeked back around to see what was coming next. Mary counted five men in the truck and Marshall silently confirmed her count with his gesture. Five against five seemed fairly straightforward.

The man leaned back into the truck to talk to someone, then walked to the back and opened the hatch. Reaching in and rummaging around, he pulled out his prize and Mary and Marshall both sucked in a breath as their blood chilled. Holding the anti-tank missile launcher, the man aimed at the very building they were in and they ran…not so straightforward after all. They both heard the muffled whump as the missile launched and were barreling out the back door as the place exploded.

Knocked off their feet and thrown to the ground amidst the burning debris, they lay breathless and stunned. Mary knew she had to get up and under cover as she could see the other men jumping out the truck to spread out and hunt down the people flushed out by the missile. The first man reloaded the launcher and proceeded to target the main house. Her ears were ringing, she felt blood on her neck and as she pushed herself into a crouch her left ankle complained mightily. She immediately looked for Marshall and saw him moving slowly about fifteen feet away. The burning building offered them some shelter from the eyes of the approaching men and she limped over to her partner to get him up and moving.

"Marshall, c'mon let's go!" she was trying to get a shoulder under him to help get him to his feet. He had a cut over his eye that was bleeding onto his face, and it must've knocked him silly because he couldn't quite get his feet under him. Mary slapped at his cheek to focus him and her heart was pounding with worry.

"Dammit, asshole…get it together! I can't carry you…Marshall! Focus!" she was almost in tears.

Finally, he seemed to shake himself awake and started to take some steps in the direction she was trying to lead him. They wobbled towards a shed a few yards away as Mary planned to get behind it in hopes of being able to pick off at least one of the men as they approached. She hoped the deputies had been as lucky as they had and escaped the house.

Marshall regained his own feet, and Mary was thankful as her ankle wasn't going to hold out with his additional weight much longer. Finally hunkered down behind the shed, and watching the men, they planned an attack.

"I'm going to break for the house to draw his fire," Marshall pointed at the man now slowly coming around to the back of the ranch hands' quarters, "you take him out when he's not looking and follow me." She nodded in agreement.

Marshall was fast and dog legged his way to the house as the shooter tried to tag him three times with no luck. Before his got off his fourth shot, he was hit with three rounds to the back from Mary's gun and went down. She hustled over to him and took his weapon to tuck into her waistband before following her partner, eyes peeled for more shooters. She found Marshall, Alongi and the other deputies crouched between the porch and garage with a dead man lying a short distance away. One deputy had a thigh wound and Marshall was helping Alongi apply a quick field dressing to stop the bleeding. The downed officer was sure he could hold out where he was and pick off any threat, and the other deputy was going to stay between the house and ranch hand quarters to dissuade anyone trying to sneak around back. The three other people cautiously made their way around the garage of the now burning ranch house. Three men remained somewhere on the grounds.

They decided to split up within range of each other in order to have gun coverage of a larger area. Mary was heading to the barn, Marshall to the truck and Alongi would stay within the shadows of the garage. They did not see any of the remaining men from their current vantage point.

As Marshall sprinted for the truck, he came under fire from a man hidden on the porch. Alongi was quick to neutralize the threat and the man tumbled to a heap at the bottom of the steps. Marshall stumbled as he felt a burn across the back of one thigh, but self assessment found only a graze. Mary saw the stumble and her heart leapt into her throat, but the hand signals Marshall gave a moment later let her know he was fine and she was clear to gain the barn.

A man rose from behind a collapsed wall of the barn as she approached and she started firing immediately. He got off one wild shot before going down and she slid around the corner of the wall safely. Only one left and they didn't see him anywhere. The team knew they had to find him soon as the smoke from the fires would draw the fire trucks from town. They did not want civilians here with a gunman on the loose.

Alongi began creeping around the front of the ranch house while Marshall circled the truck, quickly popping his head up to check inside before crouching back down. He could now see Mary slowly making her way to the other end of the barn and a flutter of movement caught his eye. The man was hiding behind the watering trough outside the far end of the barn and Mary saw him right after Marshall did. She backpedaled while firing, Marshall was running and the man got off two shots before sensing the approaching threat and turning. Accuracy was never a problem for the tall Marshal, and the man went down with two bullets to the head.

Marshall turned to Mary and didn't see her, raced around the corner of the barn and froze. She was lying on the ground and his skin crawled.

"Mare!" Stumbling to her, and falling to the floor, he realized she was awake and trying to catch her breath.

"…vest…caught it…breathing…" was all she could say.

Her partner fumbled with her vest and muttered, "Thank God" when he found the slug embedded in the material over the lower, right ribs. His hands were shaking.

Grimacing, Marshall looked at Mary and said, "That's gonna leave a mark."

She smiled and struggled to sit up as he helped her, coughing while recovering. Finally able to take a deep breath, she grabbed his collar and pulled him closer to her to whisper in his ear, "I expect you to kiss it and make it better."

"Your wish is my command." He would've done anything for her at that moment.

Alongi came running into the barn, "Is she all right?"

"Took one to the vest. She'll survive to harass me another day." Marshall teased and Mary pushed him over.

"Help me up, doofus." Getting to her feet, she took a few limping steps before looking at Alongi in irritation, "God forbid I should come back to this fucking state and not incur another injury. Dorothy never knew how good she had it when that twister sucked her up."

Mary looked at her partner and frowned. The gash above his eye was bleeding again, "I think that's going to need stitches, Marshall."

He touched it lightly and winced, pulled a handkerchief out of his pocket and pressed it gently to his forehead. Limping with Mary towards the truck, he asked Alongi, "How's your deputy?"

"He'll be fine. The femur's not broken at least, should just need some stitches and antibiotics. He managed to get himself around to the front somehow…guess he didn't want to miss the action."

Walking and limping over to the other deputies, the five people then all sat or stood silently and regarded the mess. Two buildings in flames, five dead assassins and a ranch strewn with debris.

"See how your ideas always turn out?" Marshall addressed his partner.

"Shut up, nitwit."

Marshall called the state police and Stan, Alongi called the fire department and Mary helped the injured man reinforce the dressing on his leg.

Once the paramedics arrived, Marshall found out one was also a medical student on summer break and let him put three stitches in his head after cleaning up the graze on his thigh…saved him a trip to the hospital. Mary's neck needed a small bandage, and it was determined she had a mild ankle sprain and bruised ribs. Alongi was lucky to escape unscathed, and his deputy got an ambulance ride to Dodge City.

The state police arrived within the hour and the Marshals had a lot of explaining to do. There were many phone calls exchanged and they handed over the confiscated cell phone for evidence.

The fires were out, the bodies bagged and finally it was time to leave. All involved would meet back at the Sheriff's office in the morning, and Mary and Marshall planned to head home after that.

* * *

The desk clerk stared at the two dirty, bandaged and irritated people in front of him as they registered for a room.

As they closed the door behind them, the Marshals tossed their bags on the bed and Marshall dragged Mary into his arms.

"You are a smelly, sweaty mess, my dear." he teased.

"You forgot nasty." Mary smiled as she picked crap out of his hair, "I'd suggest a mutual shower, but I'm not going to be able to stand that long with this shitty ankle."

"That's why you're going first. You can rest it while I jump in."

"You got a deal, Cowboy." Mary hobbled to the bathroom and into the shower while Marshall stripped down and wrapped a towel around his waist until it was his turn. He was nearly trembling with anticipation and felt almost like a seventeen year old on prom night.

Mary finished and dryed off, actually a little nervous about going out into the room. She laughed at herself, "_My God, when is the last time I got nervous about naked time with a guy?_" She didn't question whether she wanted to or not, that was no longer a debate. Wrapping herself in a towel she left the bathroom.

"Geez…did you leave any hot water?" he was chuckling until he turned to look at her.

Wrapped in towel and running her hands through her hair, she was the sexiest creature he had seen in a very long time. He moved to her and put his hands on her waist to look down at her.

"You're getting smudges on my nice, clean towel, Marshall." Her grin was saucy.

"You could take it off."

"Not until you're clean." Mary said as she gently pushed him away with one finger on his chest and winked.

He was in and out of that shower in seven minutes…completely clean. She met him at the bathroom door and approved his exit into the room.

He drew her to him and ran his hands down her bare shoulders to trace little lines of heat along her upper arms and across the swell of her breasts. He cupped her face and lowered his head to trace her bottom lip with his tongue and then draw it into his mouth to suckle it. She moaned and leaned into him, running her hands up his chest and over his shoulders. He proceeded to kiss her silly for the next ten minutes and they were both groaning with need as he gently backed her to the bed. Her knees hit the covers and she sat down. Enjoying the view of the hair on his chest that vee'd down to disappear into the towel low on his hips, she traced the line with her fingers and ran them along his skin just under the edge of the towel. Marshall hissed in a shaky breath and gathered her hair in his hands.

Snagging the end of his towel, Mary flicked her wrist and it fell away. Marshall watched her look at him and she sighed "Oh, my…you **have** been holding out on me, haven't you, partner?" She raised wickedly gleaming eyes to his as her hands ran up the front of his thighs and onto the flat of his abdomen. Watching the expressions on his face, she ran one finger down the length of him and his eyes closed and lips parted. It completely aroused her and she continued to tease him with that one finger as his fingers tightened in her hair.

Wanting to feel him, she closed her hand over him and he groaned as she stroked him slowly. He was velvety soft and she could not help but taste him. His eyes were closed, so he didn't expect her tongue to flick against him and circle around the tip of him. "God…damn it…, Mary" he grunted and thrust towards her. She smiled at her ability to make him swear and continued her slow torture with her hands and tongue. When she drew him into her mouth he cursed a string of words that made her short hairs curl.

She was killing him with her tongue and he was so aroused it was almost painful. When her mouth covered him and her tongue swirled around he saw spots in front of his eyes and panted. He wanted her, and he wanted her now.

Marshall pulled her head away and she licked her lips as she looked at him with a smile.

"I wasn't finished with that."

"We'll get back to it," he growled as he urged her to her feet, "I need you up here."

Mary rose slowly, making a few pit stops along the way to lick and nip at him, finally standing and looping her arms around his neck. Marshall smiled, pulled her towel off and drew her to him in one motion. They both groaned with the skin to skin contact and then his mouth was on hers again.

The feel of her was intoxicating and he ran his hands down her back, over her hips and ass and back up again, not able to touch her enough. There were no barriers between them now and every shift and shudder sent pulses of pleasure through his veins.

Mary's every nerve ending was alight with desire and heat. The friction of his chest hair against her nipples made her groin throb and she pressed herself against him, urging him for more.

Suddenly, he wrapped his arms around her waist, lifted her and dove onto the bed. She yelped in surprise and they landed with her on her back and him straddling her. The desire in his gaze as he looked at her made her squirm in delight.

"Mary…I could look at you all night. So beautiful." She was glorious beneath him. He leaned over her and kissed her lips, then neck, working downward while teasing her with his lips. She was sighing in pleasure and when he reached her breast he murmured, "Oh, I've missed you." Mary giggled slightly then gasped and tangled her fingers in his hair as he laved attention to said breast until she shifted and moaned under him.

The man was going to kill her slowly with need. Lips on her neck, her breast and trailing to her abdomen…hands stroking her shoulders and thighs. Sensation after sensation until she was writhing and incoherent, "Marshall…I want you…to…ah, God!" all the air left her in one breath as his tongue found yet another place to tease and her hips jerked against his mouth and she whimpered. "Oh, yes…please…" Her thighs opened for him and he moaned as he tasted and touched her, aching with his own want.

Her hands were pulling at his hair and she drug him back up her body until their eyes met and she ground out, "We've waited long enough, don't you think?"

"Far too long." He replied as he settled between her legs and slid himself along her wetness, teasing them both. "Do we need anything?" he was barely restraining himself and his voice shook.

"No, I'm perfectly safe…now get in me." her throaty command was obeyed as Marshall slowly slid into her. His eyes squeezed shut and he whispered unsteadily, "So good…you feel so damn good." Mary was incapable of saying anything, and her head pressed back against the mattress as he filled her and her mind melted. They just held each other there for a moment and he kissed her hard. He started to move slowly…controlled, maddening thrusts and she fanned her knees wider to meet him as sensations swirled and rose within her.

As her hips rose to urge him deeper, Marshall bent his head to suckle her breasts and she bucked and grabbed his buttocks to push him into her, little pleas leaving her lips. They were moving faster now, and Mary wrapped a leg around his back to allow his hips to tilt slightly and the new angle pushed them to the edge of control. Marshall's head came up and his thrusts became faster and harder as he cursed, moaned and panted, "God…baby…yes, like that...like that…" Mary's nailed raked down his back slightly and her leg crept up his back. The ball of flame in her core began to spread into her thighs and belly and she urged him, "Yes…more…ah, Jesus…I want you with me…come with me…"

Then she was tightening around him and shouted his name hoarsely as the climax hit her. Her bucks and shudders undid him and he cursed lewdly, thrust hard and fast and followed her with an unintelligible shout of his own, moving and sliding against her until he collapsed onto her. All that was heard for a while after was the rough sounds of their pants and an occasional sigh as they lay in a sweaty, spent heap on the covers, neither capable of anything more than breathing.

Marshall moved first, slowly untangling himself and rolling over to grab a towel off the floor. He cleaned them up quickly and then crawled back over to lay next to Mary and buried his face in her neck, kissing her collarbone and whispering, "You are a dangerous, dangerous woman, Mary Shannon."

She rustled to life, "Little 'ole me?" trailing her fingers softly along his forearm draped over her abdomen.

"You make me lose my mind…say dirty things." he was smiling against her skin.

"They're the most wonderful, dirty things though. I didn't know you had such a colorful vocabulary."

"Deceptively friendly…that's what I was described as once." Marshall liked that description of himself. It fit.

"I've always known that…that's why I keep you around."

"Are you saying I'm a kept man?" He injected some whine into his voice and she chuckled.

"If I say yes, does that mean you'd follow me home?"

Marshall levered himself up on one elbow and stared down at her. She looked beautiful lying there flushed and disheveled and his gut tingled knowing he had done that to her. He smoothed some hair away from her cheek and replied, "I'd follow you anywhere."

Mary shivered as a smile touched her lips and she shyly dropped her gaze.

"You're cold, c'mon and get under the covers."

They scooted under the blankets and she curled up with her head on his chest and leg slung over his. The exhaustion of days spent with little sleep and too much stress firmly latched onto them both and pulled them into dreamless slumber.

*****Ah...finally! Dead villians and orgasms...what more could you want ;) Please review to let me know if you liked it!! *****


	14. Chapter 14

***** Ah...the always potentially awkward morning after :) Can they finally leave this case behind? Thanks to farxy and kathiann for letting me bounce ideas off of them! *****

Mary really had to pee. She was entangled with Marshall and comfortable and warm, but her bladder would not be denied. Looking to see if she woke him when sliding out from under his arm, Mary was struck by how the sight of him affected her. Eyes closed, mouth slightly open and snoring softly, the sheets around his waist and one arm thrown over his head, there was a faint vulnerability to him that caught her. She found herself wanting to wake up with him in the mornings and it startled her. "_File that away to think about when I'm not naked._" she told herself. She slid off the edge of the bed forgetting about her sprained ankle and ended hopping off balance as the pain shot up her leg and running into the bedside table before tripping to the floor between the table and wall.

"That was probably the most graceful thing I've seen in a while." muttered her partner through his chuckle, "Are you all right?"

She scowled at him even though she couldn't see him, "I'm pretty sure I bruised my dignity. That damn ankle stiffened up nicely. Surprised me."

He scooted over to peer at her on the ground, "Do you need some help?"

"Well, shit. Yeah, I think I do."

He stood while chuckling at her and pulled her up off the floor. Wrapping his arms around her, he tilted his head and said, "Good morning."

"Is it morning? God, no…it's still dark out!"

"Good draperies…it's 6:30 in the morning."

She did a quick calculation in her head. "Marshall, we slept for twelve hours!"

"We didn't actually sleep that whole time, if I'm remembering correctly." he leered at her.

She gave him a saucy glance as she looped her arms around his neck, "You better remember correctly, buddy."

"Trust me," he growled as he nuzzled at her neck, "there are things that I will never forget…you are a talented wench."

His hands had strayed to her ass and she asked, "When do we have to be at the Sheriff's?"

"8:30." Said Marshall distractedly as he was concentrating on nibbling her ear lobe.

Pushing him away teasingly, she propositioned him, "Well, let me visit the restroom and maybe we can find something to do for an hour?"

He helped her to the door, waited and helped her back to the bed, then used the bathroom himself. Leaping to the bed with a crazy yell, he chased her across the sheets and grabbed her good ankle to drag her back towards him. She was laughing and slapping at his hands as he tickled her mercilessly, eventually gaining a bit of an upper hand when she found an exquisitely ticklish spot on his upper thigh and tortured him until he belly laughed. The laughter and squeals slowly became moans and pleas and the hour was well spent.

* * *

Alongi asked Sheriff Bowman to join him and the Marshals in the conference room in order to discuss the Campbell operation the day before. After he shut the door, Marshall stood and offered Bowman the choices he had received from the DA: supply them with the number and name of his contact, method of payment and resign his position to face obstruction charges, or be arrested with a felony accessory to murder charge and turned over to the DEA for prosecution. Sheriff Bowman stuttered and denied the accusations for about two minutes until the steady glares of all those in the room caused him to slump in his chair and start to talk. When news of his resignation was relayed to the Mayor, Tony Alongi was appointed interim Deputy Sheriff until elections could be held.

Not to be denied another round of Kansas BBQ, Mary and Marshall accepted Alongi's invitation to join him and a few friends for a late lunch BBQ at his house. The partners figured they would push through the nine hour drive home overnight since they had finally caught up on their sleep. It was overcast and relatively cool, and the patio was alive with activity at the Alongi house. His friends toasted his sudden promotion, and everyone wondered why Steve Bowman suddenly resigned. Talk centered around the activities at the ranch the day before, and gossip was that Gabe Campbell's property sat on an old gold mine and the men killed in the shootout were claim jumpers. None of the participants in the actual event felt the need to correct the story.

Mary had her ankle elevated on a plastic, kid's patio chair. Marshall had insisted on buying an elastic bandage to wrap it and she was glad for his expertise and annoying habit of fussing. It throbbed and her ribs ached, especially after the activity last night and this morning. Neither remembered the injury until she noted the coloring bruise this morning. Marshall kissed it for her.

At least she could have a beer this time, and she waved her empty bottle at a young man by the cooler to signal him to bring her another. He and two friends were only happy to oblige and flirted with Mary for a few minutes until heading back inside.

"You know you just now completely violated the Prime Directive." her partner's voice heralded his approach behind her.

Mary was trying to recall a WITSEC regulation with that name and coming up blank. "What the hell are you talking about now?"

"Avoiding any influential contact with an alien society in which exposure to items they cannot understand would alter their natural development."

Mary just blinked at him with a furrowed brow.

"Star Trek." he offered, like that would help. More blinking.

"Good God, maybe the rumors of alien abductions around here are real." Mary wondered aloud.

"Those poor boys you just flustered will never be the same. You've ruined them for any woman now." Marshall said with a grin. He crouched down to look at her ankle.

Mary barked a laugh, then hissed as Marshall moved the bandage aside to assess the bruising. "Jesus, stop poking it, idiot."

He grimaced as he studied the injury, "I don't know, Mare. This might be fractured…it's looking pretty nasty now."

"Do you really think a fractured ankle would've survived our antics last night?" Her tone was disbelieving.

He shrugged a shoulder, "I had a friend in college who fractured her leg playing volleyball and walked around on it wondering why it hurt for six weeks. She even rode her bike to class every day. Like you, she had a high pain tolerance and little patience for taking care of herself."

"It's **fine**, Marshall…quit fussing."

They glared at each other for a bit, then Marshall compromised, "If it's not showing improvement by the time we're back home I'm going to tell Stan to make you get it x-rayed."

She rolled her eyes and sighed, "Aye aye, Captain Turk."

"Kirk."

"Whatever."

Alongi joined them on the patio, "So, what did you guys do last night? Finally get more than five hours of sleep?"

Mary's mind went completely blank, but luckily Marshall was quick on the draw, "I spent a good amount of time studying the back of my eyelids. Was in bed by 6:30 and didn't get up until 7:30 this morning."

Alongi laughed and said to Mary, "Well, he's mister excitement isn't he?"

"You have no idea." she drawled with a quick look at her partner. Marshall was standing behind Alongi and thrust his hips at her with a cheesy grin and she choked on her beer.

They said their goodbyes and thanks around 4pm and Mary hobbled to the truck staunchly refusing Marshall's help. He squinted his eyes at her in annoyance and she told him to get over it.

* * *

"Why don't vampires burn up when there's a full moon?" Mary's question came out of the blue.

Marshall was reading a novel and stripped a few mental gears trying to align his brain cells with hers, "Um…you're going to have to fill a few gaps in for me here."

"You know, the myths all say vampires are allergic to sunlight and die if exposed, but if the light from the moon is actually reflected sunlight, why don't they burn up when exposed to the full moon?" Mary had been admiring the beautiful moon rise as she headed south on I-25 through Pueblo, and her mind wandered.

"Have you been watching the Discovery Channel again?" he asked with raised eyebrows.

"What? I can't know basic scientific and vampire facts? Sometimes I think you think I run on a low watt bulb."

"I assure you, that thought never entered my mind. Your brain is a marvelous and terrifying place." He drawled.

Mary chuckled, "So…why don't they burn up?"

"I don't know. Maybe low level exposure isn't enough to ignite their cells."

"If that were true, then they should be able to go out on really cloudy and gloomy days too."

"No…I think it has to be direct sunlight. The reflected rays would be okay because they would have lost too much energy to be harmful." Marshall was getting into this debate now as he started thinking scientifically.

"I'd go with that, except I saw this one movie where they fried the critters with a big mirror. "

"Not enough atmospheric interference, the reflected rays didn't have to go through thousands of miles of air particles so they were still energetic enough to shake and bake."

"Mmmm." Mary seemed to think about that for a few minutes, then asked, "Do you think she's still mad at me?"

This time his brain made a noise like a needle scraping across a vinyl record, "Mare, we really need to work on your transitional conversational skills. Who's mad at you?"

She shot him a sneer, "Eleanor…remember? The whole reason I got dragged into this trip in the first place. We were talking about vampires…so…her name popped into my head." she shrugged.

Marshall barked a laugh, "I doubt it. You're still going to have to apologize, though. It's the right thing to do."

"Can't you do it for me?" Mary whined.

"No."

"C'mon, Marshall, you know I suck at apologies. And I had an excuse."

"Just tell her that. And you don't suck at apologies when you're sincere." Marshall was thinking about the one she gave him a few nights back. He smiled with the memory.

She huffed, "Fine. But it's not gonna be sappy or sweet."

"If it were, she'd probably slug you." he smiled and Mary looked over at him.

"You're still waiting for me and her to grease up and throw down, aren't you?" she teased.

"Yes, please!" Marshall moved as close to the door as he could so the punch didn't sting quite as much, and they laughed and teased about mud wrestling for a while. It was easy, and they were glad.

It was about 2:30 am when they pulled up to Mary's quiet and dark house. She had called Stan earlier in the evening to let him know their time line, and agreed to be into work by lunch time the next day. Marshall helped her get her bags inside, and carried her overnight bag into her room.

"You set?" he asked, back in the front room.

"I think I can take it from here." She reached out to snag the front of his shirt and pulled him over to where she was leaning against the hallway table. He pulled her into an embrace and kissed her.

"Mmmmm…" she hummed against his mouth, then pulled away to say, "I'd invite you to stay, but then neither of us would be in any shape to work tomorrow."

"Too true," he agreed, "plus I really need some fresh clothes and my plants are surely on their last, gasping breath by now."

She pushed him towards the door with a chuckle, "Go, go…save them. I'll see you in the morning."

Marshall grabbed her head to kiss her on the forehead and was out the door. Mary hobbled herself into her room, enjoying the peace and quiet of her house, showered and was in bed and asleep within a half hour.

Marshall's plants were gasping, but not completely past hope. He cared for them, then echoed his partner's actions, crawling into bed clean and tired. He missed her for a few minutes before drifting into slumber.

* * *

The creak of the floorboard in the middle of the hallway had her instantly awake, heart pounding and reaching for her gun. A moment of disorientation with all the traveling, she was unsure whether the noise had been in a dream or if it was real. A faint rustle of cloth confirmed her fear and she slid out of bed and limped over to the door while trying to keep her breathing quiet. No one should be in the house.

He came around the doorway as she reached it and she yelled, "Freeze!" while bringing up her weapon. At the same time, the man shoved her sideways and ducked back into the hallway as she fired. The shot went wide and Mary ended up on the floor by the bed. Scuttling to her feet and listening for the sound of a door, she grabbed her cell and hit the speed dial.

Marshall was now convinced his phone was possessed by the devil as it again rang before the sun came up. Reaching for it groggily, he dragged it to his ear.

"Marshall here."

"I've got company." Mary whispered in a rush.

His stomach dropped into the floor and he leapt out of bed, "I'm on my way!"

Jumping into a pair of jeans and throwing on a t-shirt and boots, he grabbed his weapon and badge as he ran out the door. He would get there as fast, if not faster, than the cops and didn't bother to call it in. The speed limit was ignored.

She was scared and pissed, not a good combination for anyone she found. Not hearing a door open or shut, she had to assume he was still in the house. A normal burglar or rapist would have left at this point, usually an awake victim with a gun was a powerful motivator for flight, so she was trying to think of reasons for an intruder while creeping down the hallway. Closing her door, Brandi's door and the bathroom as she cleared them, she made it harder for the man to run and hide again without sound giving him away. Mary surveyed the dark living room and kitchen from the end of the hallway and her pulse pounded in her ears through the silence.

"I don't know what you want, but I've called the cops and you better get the fuck out of my house." she announced, hoping to flush them out. Nothing.

Mary debated whether she should continue looking or wait for Marshall. Not someone who waited well, she crept into the front room, staying along the wall and heading towards Jinx's bedroom, eyes peeled for any movement. He came from the other side of the couch as she turned to look into the bedroom and hit her from behind, driving them both into the room.

They hit the floor hard and her gun flew under the bed as the struggle began. Combat training and sheer meanness gave Mary an edge already and panic was icing on the cake. She threw her head back and caught his nose, causing him to grunt and slip to the side. An elbow to the ribs and knee to the groin further disabled the man and she was scrambling up to escape back into the living room. Her other gun was in the entry way table drawer and she almost got there when he grabbed her hair and her shirt and threw her against the wall by the front window.

Mary was stunned for a moment, and visions of that basement flittered through her mind. She was not going to be trapped again, and focused on every defensive technique she could think of as he pulled her back up off the floor. Staying limp as he righted her, she exploded into motion once he exposed his front. He went down, but she took a blow to the abdomen that knocked the breath out of her and she couldn't untangle herself. Now her legs were trapped under him and she pushed and kicked to free herself. The man recovered enough to get a hold of her legs and used his weight to pin her down as he fought with her.

"You think you can cause me this much trouble without suffering the consequences, Miss Shannon?" he panted, the European accent prominent. Mary landed another blow to his chin and he grunted in pain.

"This is the worse mistake you ever made, asshole." She grunted in reply, trying desperately to plant a knee to his groin as he trapped her wrist in a viselike grip. She was losing ground here, and hoped Marshall was going to get here soon.

Finally getting his other hand around her neck, he put a knee on her chest and bore down with his full weight. She couldn't breathe immediately and bucked and twisted to try to dislodge him, her free hand digging at his fingers around her throat.

"I told you to change your mind. Too bad you are a stubborn woman." Releasing some tension, he allowed her to suck in a lungful of air.

"You'll be dead in about thirty seconds." She rasped out, having heard the distinctive scrape of the backdoor opening.

The man was too focused on the woman beneath him to take the threat seriously, and leaned forward again to cut off her air, smiling at her struggles to breathe.

Marshall's boot caught him in the ribs as if the tall man was kicking a fifty yard field goal to win the championship game. The man yelled in pain as his ribs broke and was tossed off Mary by the momentum of the kick. Stepping over her, Marshall kicked him again then reached down to pick him up and toss him into the wall. He pulled his gun and stepped over to hold it to the head of the slumped man, breathing heavily and enraged.

Mary rolled over and crawled to Marshall to grab his ankle, "Don't." she croaked. They froze in a silent tableau, only the sound of breathing could be heard.

Marshall had gone around back because he knew Mary would've had the chain on the front door. As many times as he had reminded her, she never used the chain on the back door. When he got there it was already open from the intruder's efforts and he walked in on the scene. He wanted to put a bullet in this man's brain after seeing him strangling his partner, but her hand on his ankle stilled him. There was a reason she didn't want him dead, and that was good enough for right now. He took a deep breath and holstered his gun to grab his cuffs. Mary let go of him, and he put the man face down and restrained his hands, then grabbed Mary's cuffs out of the table drawer, dragged the man over to the couch and cuffed his ankle to the couch leg.

Mary honestly couldn't get off the floor. The fight was intense and had lasted too long and she had no energy left except to breathe. People didn't realize real fights only lasted one or two minutes because the adrenaline being pumped and pure power you expend suck you dry and you've got nothing left after that time. Add some fright and pain, and you're lucky to be conscious when it's over. Her limbs were trembling, her ankle and ribs throbbing and she lay on her side to watch Marshall as he came back over to her.

"Jesus," she muttered hoarsely, "did you walk over?"

He knew she was teasing to relieve the tension, "I knew you'd want to get your share of punches in." he replied as he leaned down to put her arms around his neck. Urging her to hold on to him, he got her to her feet, but her legs just wouldn't hold.

"God damn it," she hissed, irritated at her own inability to support herself.

"Here, just hang on." Marshall instructed, and he lifted her up to carry her to the couch. Mary was always impressed that he could carry her so easily.

"It's the guy from the phone call…the European one." her voice cracked and she coughed then continued, "Call Bobby to come and get him."

He deposited her on the cushions and looked her over with a frown, "Are you hurt?"

"Not really, just beat up. I think I did more damage to him than he did to me." She processed an internal review of systems and was satisfied that nothing needed to be attended to. "My gun is under Jinx's bed though." She put her left leg up on the coffee table to relieve the pounding in her ankle and rested her head back against the cushions, taking slow deep breaths as her body and brain eased back down to DefCon 4.

Marshall called Bobby D. as he retrieved Mary's gun and let him know the DEA may be interested in Mary's intruder. While waiting for the cops, Marshall got Mary a sweatshirt, a drink of water and some ibuprofen. She was going to be in a world of hurt by morning. He certainly hoped this was the last of the problems from Kansas, and decided he was staying here for the rest of the night just in case.

"I guess he decided I'd be easier to take down than you." They were just filling time while waiting for Bobby, and Mary was leaning back against Marshall's chest while they sat on the couch. There was no movement from the unconscious man on the floor.

Marshall snorted, "That was a serious tactical error on his part."

"I have a feeling you're planning on staying tonight…er, this morning?" She leaned her head back to look up at him.

"Do you want me to go home?" he wanted to offer her the option even though he hoped she'd say no.

"I didn't want you to go home the first time, nitwit." she smiled.

The doorbell rang as Bobby arrived with his crew and Marshall kissed Mary on the nose as he got up to answer the door. The detective just shook his head in dismay after hearing the story of the intruder and the subsequent fight. Looking at the pair, Bobby took in the fading and new bruises, bandages and stitches and asked, "What do you people do when you're out of town?"

"What do you mean?" asked Mary with an evil gleam in her eye, "This is just from the rough sex."

Marshall choked as he tried to keep a straight face while watching Dershowitz's reaction. The dectective's eyes widened, then he squinted at Mary who was smiling innocently, and finally looked at Marshall suspiciously.

"Fine, don't tell me. But quit dragging your baggage back to my town. And get a damn alarm system." he pointed an accusatory finger at Mary. It had been an ongoing argument between the two of them for a while now.

The house was quiet again and the partners lay curled together in Mary's bed. Too tired and too beat up to do anything but sleep. This was the first time Marshall had been in Mary's bed and he smiled to himself as he took in his surroundings. He had seen her room before, but now had the time to look at the little details. A small, stuffed sock monkey on the corner of her dresser, three pieces of colorful origami that a young witness had folded for her years ago and an item that gave him pause as he recognized it. It was a key chain he had bought for her in a gay novelty shop on a case early last year. A pair of garish, pink lips with the saying '_**My partner blows**_' on it. She had laughed hysterically when he gave it to her for Christmas that year and he never saw it again. He figured she had thrown it away and didn't give it a second thought. It hung on a peg from the corner of her dresser mirror and he was somehow touched. Tucking her closer, he silently mouthed "I love you" into her hair and let sleep envelop him with a smile on his face.

***** I like it when Mary gets into fights. I can see her ripping someone apart. Now, everyone from the case is accounted for and Mary and Marshall can get back to doing what they do...with benefits! There's a short little epilogue that I'll add on. Tell me what you think!!! This was FUN! *****


	15. Chapter 15

***** Alas...it is time to go. Thank you all so much for reading and reviewing! Mary and Marshall have one final hurdle to leap over...read on. zesty zest too!*****

Mary pulled her chair over to set it beside Eleanor's desk after the secretary had settled in after lunch. Marshall watched discreetly from the corner of his eye. He and Mary had arrived at the office about forty minutes ago, and he knew his partner had been running over what to say in her head. Nothing was simple with Mary…not even an apology.

Eleanor watched Mary as the blonde woman sat in the chair, put her elbows on her knees and looked at her.

"I want to apologize for what I said to you last Tuesday. I was sick and in pain that morning, and I honestly don't really remember what transpired, but I still had no reason to be quite that nasty. I'm sorry I hurt your feelings." She had made eye contact the whole time and was completely sincere.

Eleanor wasn't used to this Mary. She was used to sassy Mary, nasty Mary, inappropriate Mary…but not direct and sincere Mary. The younger woman's gaze was uncomfortably intense and it gave Eleanor a slightly different view of her. There was more to her than she realized.

"Thank you. It did seem slightly too crude, even for you. Not a problem." Eleanor was satisfied with the apology and let Mary off the hook quickly.

"I want to thank you, too." Mary said with a grin.

"For what?"

"For asking Stan to send me to Kansas. I'll always look at it slightly differently now." It was an enigmatic statement and Eleanor didn't understand it, but Mary was already up and pulling her chair back to her desk.

Mary looked at Marshall, and he gave a slight nod with a wink. The order of the Sunshine Building had been restored for the time being.

The partners slowly caught up with their work over the next few weeks, and had to attend a number of debriefings on the Kansas adventure. Mary's ankle healed just fine without x-rays, and Manny, to Marshall's complete surprise, was ensconced somewhere in the southeast and sticking to the rules. The man arrested at Mary's house was a key player in the Quinter massacre and ended up being a mid-level buyer that was being sought by the DEA in this whole fiasco. For the most part, everyone was happy. Stan, however, threatened to deduct wages from their paychecks nearly everyday when the expenses from their trip kept rolling in. The feds were trying to get WITSEC to pay for the damage to the Quinter Ranch. Mary thought that was a load of shit considering her house still had holes in it. Nobody even **lived** at the ranch.

Eleanor couldn't put her finger on the nagging sense of something different in the office. Mary and Marshall fought and bickered as usual with Stan as playground monitor, the inspectors carried their workload as normal and the witnesses came and went. It took her two weeks to spot it and she just sat back in her chair and smiled. Their physical boundaries were gone. When Mary leaned over Marshall to read a file or look at a screen, she actually leaned against him slightly. At the coffee counter, Marshall reached around his partner to grab the sugar and placed his hand on her hip. Mary pointed something out to Marshall in an MOU and he placed his chin on her shoulder when he leaned in from behind her to read it. Only lovers allow that kind of unconscious proximity. A new view of Kansas indeed. It made her happy for some reason, and she would do nothing. Tell no one.

Mary and Marshall had a full ten days to themselves privately as Mary's family remained in Jersey until then. They talked a lot and made love even more. Since they had been so close as friends and partners before, their relationship didn't appear any different to most of the people around them. They knew they'd have to make changes when Mary's family came back…Marshall wouldn't be able to stay at her house anymore. They'd deal with it. Until then, waking up with each other was on their daily agenda and they took full advantage of it.

* * *

Marshall awoke with soft fingers stroking him and the warm pulses of desire starting to spread through his thighs. He sighed with a small smile and opened his eyes slightly to look down at himself. Her fingers caressed his inner thigh, trailing up to lightly brush over his testicles and then wrap around him to stroke up his length. Entranced, he watched himself respond more fully to her touch and hummed contentedly, his own hand trailing down her back as she lay curled next to him. She traced little kisses along his ribs, then a slow lick to his nipple only to blow on it gently to watch it pucker in response. All the while continuing to gently and deliberately explore him with her hand.

"Oooohh…" he sighed with a catch in his voice as she pressed her body against his, her soft curls against his hip and breasts against his ribs, her thigh and foot slowly sliding down to trap his leg. Mary's own belly glowed with anticipation as she pressed his thigh with her own and gently rocked her pelvis against his hip. His skin was soft and firm under her hands and she used his own moisture to glide her fingers over him, slightly increasing the pressure as she felt his belly quiver with the sensation. When he moaned, she shifted to lay stretched out on top of him, nestling him under her pelvis and supporting herself on her elbows either side of his chest. Sliding up slightly, she met his drowsy, aroused gaze and pressed her lips to his in a slow, easy kiss. His hands skimmed up her sides and trailed little lines of electricity down her back, curves and thighs. She eased downward again, sliding along the length of him, and ran kisses along his jawline, throat and collarbone. The friction of her against him caused him to tremble slightly and jerk his hips under her and she smiled.

Pushing herself up, her thighs slid to either side of his hips and she settled herself onto him, tantalizing them both with the anticipation of things to come. He was enveloped in her soft, moist folds and she watched his face take on a slightly pained look with denied entry. Tilting her hips, she slid herself along his length and her own lips parted as she sighed with a faint sound of pleasure. He felt so good and his hardness urged her on.

Marshall took in her disheveled hair, half closed eyes and parted lips and trailed his eyes down to her breasts and abdomen as she tilted her head back slightly with the next rock of her hips. He wanted to be in her so badly, but she continued to taunt and tease him and he groaned. Reaching out, he slid his hands up her thighs, feeling the muscles bunch and move with her small movements, strength and softness tantalizing him. Her belly was smooth and taut and his hands finally cupped her breasts, the weight of them arousing him even more and he gently squeezed and pinched her nipples to watch her gasp.

Mary's need was growing with each second, but she wanted these sensations to continue. Leaning back slightly, she rested her hands behind her on his thighs and looked down to where their bodies met. Sliding back, she would see him emerge from underneath her and then slowly disappear with her forward tilt. It was incredibly arousing and she was fascinated by the sensations of the coarse hair on his testicles tickling her followed by the smoothness of him pressing against her. She made little sounds of pleasure as she watched and bit her lip.

Marshall had never experienced anything so erotic and the feel of her soft wetness sliding over his testicles was maddening. His brow was furrowed and his mouth opened in a little "oh" with each tilt of her hips. Each time she glided forward, her folds clenched around him and he panted…wanting more. She leaned back forward, resting her hands on his chest, and tucked her pelvis under her to capture the tip of him at her opening, meeting his eyes with the action. They gazed at each other with naked want, and she smiled slyly. Her muscles quivered as she felt him poised to enter, but she continued to tease him with small motions that allowed just a portion of him to slide into her. Her breathing was unsteady with focus on control and she resisted his efforts to pull her down over him. Each small dip into her was heaven and he wanted to bury himself inside her. His breaths became shallow and finally he whispered, "Please…"

She took him inside of her with one, quick motion and ground her hips against him as she settled on him, all of him buried within. Marshall grunted-gasped and arched his hips, hands gripping her hips tightly, and Mary moaned and clenched around him. She began to move slowly, vision blurry with the sensation of him sliding within her and stretching her, and her fingers pressed into his chest. They were both close to the edge already, and her movements became faster and more urgent quickly. Her hands transferred to his abdomen so she could deepen his thrusts and he reached down to glide his thumb against her where they were joined. He knew he was not going to last much longer as the heat coiled in his groin and began to spread throughout the length of him, and he groaned and muttered words of encouragement.

Mary's world was only sensation as her body pulsed with impending release, Marshall's thumb heightening the pleasure-pain of need. One more slight tilt backwards and he bumped up against a part of her deep inside and she shattered, thrusting fast and moaning loudly as little shards of ecstasy infused her. His hands squeezed her hips and she actually felt him pulse within her while he reached his own peak, grunting and thrusting while pulling her against him. It was bliss and she almost cried with the pure pleasure…never like this with anyone else…ever.

His vision had faded as he spilled into her and his body spasmed with delight, and he floated in semi-consciousness while she fell against him. He could not move and had to just allow himself to tremble and breathe, her involuntary muscle spasms causing him to occasionally jerk in response. They drifted back to earth together like feathers tossed into the air, slowly spinning and rocking until gently landing and laying still.

She became aware of his hands slowly caressing her back and running through her hair aimlessly. He placed a kiss on her forehead with a murmur of affection and she finally had to admit it to herself…that little word she knew described this feeling of utter contentment and belonging. This man beneath her who now knew every part of her and accepted her was her lover in more than just body. She could trust him with her life and had to make a decision to trust him with her heart. A heart so fragile and protected that it hurt to even think about being broken, and a tear ran out of her eye as she didn't know if she could be that brave. What did she have to offer this man…a woman who charged through life at breakneck speed so that the past could never catch up? Pushed people away so they would never be close enough to care…to crumble her defenses with kindness or compassion? But he knew about that…knew about her, and she realized she had no defenses against him. He always pushed through every barrier and survived all the arrows to stand right next to her. Sometimes wounded, but never defeated. Maybe this time…for this one person…she should stop pushing and see what happens.

"I'm not very brave. You should know that." Mary murmured, a slight wobble to her voice.

Marshall's hands stilled and he opened his eyes to peer down at the top of her head and he softly replied, "Yes, you are. You're one of the bravest people I know."

"Not with this. It's never felt like that before…I've never felt like this before." She was scared and her gut was tight.

He sensed this was so very important, and wrapped his arms around her to hold her close. "I know. Me either." Marshall waited with hope.

A few more tears fell and she couldn't help it. She swallowed. Nestled in his arms, she was happier than she had ever been and knew what she had to do. She could not give up this moment and wonder one day what would have happened had she taken the chance. The 'what if' would kill her more slowly and more surely than the rejection.

Taking a deep, shuddery breath, Mary did the bravest thing she had ever done.

"I'm in love with you, Marshall." her voice was husky with emotion. She had never said those words to anyone before. "I thought you should know."

His arms tightened, face pressed into her hair and he shivered while whispering, "Oh, Mare…do you know how long I've waited for you to say that?"

Marshall rolled them so he was lying next to her and propped up on one elbow. Seeing her tears, he leaned down to kiss the corners of her eyes and stroked her cheekbone with his thumb. He could barely believe she had said the words and his heart just ached with joy. He knew she felt it, but he had to let her explore it on her own time and come to him. For so long he thought it would never happen, and there were days when he wondered if what he had would be enough. No more wondering and waiting, no more hesitation, and a weight lifted off his shoulders as he spoke.

"There is no one like you, Mary. No one who makes me feel so right…so complete. No one I could love like I love you." He finished in a whisper and kissed her, pouring all his soul into her.

She knew, now, that there would be someone to stand beside her and her kiss welcomed him. She wrapped her arms around him as he settled against her, their mouths exploring and tasting with wonder at this new thing.

***** I never did find a way to inject flying monkeys into the story...damn! Stay tuned for my next fic...whenever that may be :) *****


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